Question

Discuss the activity that you feel is one of the most important that needs to be done as part of closing a project? What are the risks of skipping this activity? What is one crucial question that you could ask during a post-project evaluation and how could you use what you learn to improve the next project.

Answer 1

Discuss the activity that you feel is one of the most important that needs to be done as part of closing a project?

As we know, a project is a time-bound and temporary endeavor undertaken to achieve certain goals set out either by the organization or through a customer. A project has multiple stages namely, Defining, Planning, starting, delivering, monitoring, handling exceptions, and lastly closing. Each stage has multiple activities that have to be completed before moving on to the next stage for proper project management. We are looking at the Project closing stage which is the last stage of a project and probably the most neglected one. There are multiple activities related to this stage which are:

- Releasing the project team
- Releasing supplier of the third-party vendor associated with the project
- Monitoring sponsors
- Managing technical environment (If it is a technical project)
- Managing quality

The most important activity that needs to be undertaken in the closing stage as per me is Monitoring Sponsors. This activity has a couple of tasks that need to be completed:

- Obtaining Sponsors feedback - As we know a project is completed for a customer which can be either internal or external. We need to understand their perspective on how the project was handled and whether they are satisfied with the services provided. What could have been done better?
- Closing the official agreement through formal closure: This step is the most important one as projects are a formal process and closure being the final stage, an official acknowledgment from the customer is vital for formally closing the project.

What are the risks of skipping this activity?

As advised earlier, proper project closure is often neglected which leads to the project being open for an indefinite period. Without going through the activity "Monitoring sponsors" you would not have an official document to substantiate whether or not the project is closed. Also, feedback would not be collected which is required to let you know about the project's success. Projects are more of a service and are hence intangible, to know whether the project was successful or not, its important to get clients feedback.

What is one crucial question that you could ask during a post-project evaluation and how could you use what you learn to improve the next project.

Post project evaluations are a part of Managing quality activity within the project closing stage. It is done to understand the effectiveness of the project and whether or not the benefits were realized as planned. It is also an opportunity for team members to come together and review the lessons learned. The most important question as per me in this stage would be "What went wrong during the project and what can be done so that we do not repeat that in future?".

Project evaluations are a review of projects which are undertaken after the project is officially closed and you have the client's feedback with you as well. When evaluating you would be able to merge your finding with that of the client and come to a consensus on what didn't go well in the project. Now, a project will have good and probably some bad. The good of a project can be continued however now that you have an insight on the bad as well, you can see whether the issues are skill related or are related to any other factor. If its a skill issue you can go ahead and get the same developed to make sure that you can provide the best service in the next project. You can also document project best practices and areas of improvement for the next project. This would help you in referring to the area of development and making sure that the same is not repeated in future projects.