As we were saying in the introduction section, we can depict project management as follows:
- Initiate the Project
- Plan and Setup the Project
- Until complete, continuously:
- Work on the Project
- Track and Re-plan the Project
- Close the Project
With this in mind much of the project is about working on the project, figuring what is happening and re-planning to ensure the end goals are met. At some stage this is hopefully the case! Either way there comes a time when the project needs to be shut down. As we know this is one of the hall marks of a project - it has a defined start and a defined end. This is what marks a project out from processes and continuous operations. A set of steps for this close down stage is as follows:
(i) Run Project Post-Mortem and Track Lessons Learnt
No project ever goes perfectly. None! If you think about the approach we are advocating in this guide in the prior stages we suggest that you have regular tracking and re-planning steps. This is essentially a tacit admission that we are learning as we go. So if we can learn as we go - why not as we finish! There is a tendency to take flight when the project is over - and move to the next one. However the more you learn from the project you have just completed, the more successful you will be with the project you are about to start. Remember this guide is written for project managers who have no formal training and no formal set of experiences managing projects. With this in mind this learning opportunity is not one to be wasted. It is also important to remember that as a Project Manager that we have been leader of the project. However we are probably leading people who are at least as experienced as we are and in most cases people who are more experienced. With this in mind it is respectful to ask these people what they thought of the project.
To do a good post mortem it is helpful to have a set of open questions to ask. Questions naturally help the participants reflect of the project from various angles so the quality of feedback and learning is best. A sample set of simple and open questions include:
- What went well on this project?
- What did not go so well on this project?
- What did we not do on this project that might help?
- What specific actions should we take to adjust the approach to the next project we do?
People are very smart so the real task at this step is to give people the time and the space to review the project.
This step can be carried out simply enough - and a set of possible mechanisms include:
- Meeting - the team meet to talk through the project in a facilitated session using the questions above
- Survey - you give people a survey in the collaborative project site
- Meeting and Survey - you do a combination of both - people answer questions in advance and then come to thoroughly discuss the answers and make recommendations
Many Project Managers say they do not have time to do project post mortems. However the same professionals seem to have time to fall into the same traps and then spend time fixing the issues. A stitch in time saves nine!
(ii) Close out the Project site
On an administrative note you now have a live project site for a project that is closed. At a minimum you should mark the project closed so that anyone who visits the site can see that the project is closed. You also want to ensure that the project does not appear in the project reports going to senior management. It is best not to archive and this hide the site. Normally when projects are completed it is really hard to get any information about them after a few months. The half life of project information is very fast! The site contains great information about the project that is typically lost when projects are closed down when so keep the project site around. It will also help to look aback at the project site when planning new projects.
(iii) Capture any useful modifications made to the project site for use on future projects
If the project site was modified as you went through the project and it nearly always is, then you will want to review the modifications and make some of these modifications to the template you use to make new project sites. This is a very pragmatic but cheap way to improve the way you do project management.