Project Closure and Auditing
These sections focus on the tasks needed to close a project once the deliverables are complete.
From the Trenches: Brian Price
Brian Price, a graduate of the UW Master of Engineering in Professional Practice program (a precursor of the Masters in Engineering Management program), is the former chief powertrain engineer for Harley-Davidson. He teaches engine project management in the UW Master of Engineering in Engine Systems program. In his twenty-five years managing engine-related engineering projects, he had ample opportunity to see the benefits of good project closure procedures, and the harm caused by bad or non-existent project closure procedures. In his most recent role as a professor of engineering, he tries to encourage his students to understand the importance of ending projects systematically, with an emphasis on capturing wisdom gained throughout a project.
Brian shared some particularly insightful thoughts on the topic in an interview:
The hardest parts of any project are starting and stopping. Much of project management teaching is typically devoted to the difficulties involved in starting a project - developing a project plan, getting resources in place, putting together a team, and so on. But once a project is in motion, it gains momentum, taking on a life of its own, making it difficult to get people to stop work when the time comes. It, therefore, requires some discipline to get projects closed out in a structured way that ties up all the loose ends. Close out checklists can help. (For one example, see Figure 14.2 in Project Management: The Managerial Process, by Erik W. Laron and Clifford F. Gray.) The close-out also needs to wrap up final budgets and reallocate resources.
Generally speaking, the end of a project is a perfect time to reflect on what went well and what could be done differently next time. The After Action Review (AAR) process, derived from military best practice, is very helpful. It focuses on three distinct, but related areas:- Project performance: Did it meet objectives? Was it done efficiently and effectively?
- Team performance: How well did people work together? Were they stronger than the sum of their parts?
To learn more about the AAR process, see this in-depth explanation in the Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2005/07/learning-in-the-thick-of-it.
The reflections at the end of a project are a great opportunity to capture key learning, whether technical, managerial, or related to project execution. This can then be codified for dissemination and application on other projects. Continually building a knowledge base is essential for improving techniques and best practice. This never comes easy, as it can be seen as bureaucratic report writing, so as a project manager you will need to insist on it. Keep in mind that the point of building a knowledge base is not, of course, to improve the project you are closing out, but to improve the many as yet undetermined projects that lie ahead.
Focus on what it took to deliver the project (time, resources, tasks, budgets, etc.) compared to the original plan. This information is essential in planning the next project. After all, the main reason projects fail is because they were inadequately planned, and the main reason they are inadequately planned is because the planners lacked complete planning information. Your best source of good planning information is wisdom gained from recent, similar projects. Thus, it is essential to capture and disseminate that information at the close of every project.
Finally, don't discount the importance of honoring the achievements of the project team. The project closure stage is a good time to build morale with an end-of-project celebration, especially when a close-knit team is about to be dispersed into other projects. People need a coherent conclusion to their work.
Unfortunately, most organizations pay little attention to project closure. This is partly due to basic human psychology - people get excited by the next opportunity. They tend to drift off to the next interesting thing, and something new is always more interesting than something old. But a deeper problem is that organizations tend to be more interested in what the project is delivering, rather than the knowledge and wisdom that allows the company to deliver the project's value. The real worth of an organization is the knowledge that allows it to continue generating value. For Harley Davidson, for example, that would be its collective knowledge of how to make motorcycles. A well-conducted project closure adds to that knowledge, transforming specific experience into wisdom that the organization can carry forward to future undertakings (2016).
Failure: The Best Teacher
In their book Becoming a Project Leader, Laufer et al. explain the importance of a tolerance for failure. Projects will occasionally close or radically change course, but that doesn't mean that the team members who worked on such projects were ineffective. In fact, coping with such challenges can help individuals and teams be much more efficient. In his capacity as a project manager for the U.S. Air Force's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, Terry Little's response to a failed missile launch was not to scold the contractor, Lockheed, for its failure but rather to ask how he could help. Larry Lawson, project manager at Lockheed, called Terry's response "the defining moment for the project . . . . Teams are defined by how they react in adversity - and how their leaders react. The lessons learned by this team about how to respond to adversity enabled us to solve bigger challenges". As Laufer et al. articulate, "By being a failure-tolerant leader, Terry Little was able to develop a culture of trust and commitment-based collaboration".