Question

1. Discuss what needs to be done as part of closing a project. Why are these activities important?
2. Discuss the internal post project evaluation process and the two types of meetings involved.
3. What are some ways you can obtain feedback from a customer after a project has been completed? How would you use this information?
4. Why are some projects terminated before they are completed? When would it be wise to do so?
5. List the several lessons learned from a project in which you were a project team member or project manager. How will these lessons learned inform your future projects?

Answer 1

Q.Discuss what needs to be done as part of closing a project. Why are these activities important?

Answer: Project closure activities ensure the recording project documents, archiving in organizational process assets, making final payments, releasing resources and completing the project. Every project teaches lessons to the organization whether it’s a success or is a failure. So even after a project finishes, the documentation of this project is going to be helpful for completing the coming projects successfully.

Just as any of the other project management processes (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling), Project Closing serves an important purpose for the organization and helps it avoid unfavorable and adverse scenarios.

Q.Discuss the internal post project evaluation process and the two types of meetings involved.

Successful project managers lay the groundwork for repeating on future projects what worked on past ones (and avoiding what didn’t) by conducting a post-project evaluation. A post-project evaluation (also called a post-project review or lessons learned) is an assessment of project results, activities, and processes that allows you to

• Recognize project achievements and acknowledge people’s work.

• Identify techniques and approaches that worked, and devise steps to ensure they’re used in the future.

• Identify techniques and approaches that didn’t work, and devise steps to ensure they aren’t used again in the future.

Take steps in each stage of your project’s evolution (starting the project, organizing and preparing, carrying out the work, and closing the project) to lay the groundwork for your post-project evaluation

• Starting the project:

  • Determine the benefits your project’s drivers wanted to realize when they authorized your project.

  • If your project is designed to change an existing situation, take before measures to describe the existing situation so that you have something to compare to the after measures you take when the project is completed.

  • Organizing and preparing:

    • Identify additional project drivers you may have overlooked in the first stage of your project. Your project drivers’ expectations serve as the criteria for defining your project’s success, so you want to know who they all are before you begin your project’s work.

    • Develop clear and detailed descriptions of all project objectives.

    • Include the activity Conduct a post-project

    • evaluation in your Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and allow time and resources to perform it Q.What are some ways you can obtain feedback from a customer after a project has been completed How would you use this information? Answer: Gathering feedback regarding your product or service not only improves your business process, but it makes the customer feel heard and involved. Such involvement brings your customer back and makes them dedicated to your brand. And although we don’t like hearing it, the truth is that even bad feedback is useful if you have the tools to create a plan and apply it. There are various aspects of customer service that a business can focus on, be that onboarding or content marketing to get insights on the customer journey. There’s also data collection, which is useless unless it is used to follow through with action. Then deciding on the channel to collect and visually analyze that data is crucial.   

Here are five that are especially productive

1. Live Chat

A better solution is one in which the customer, not the business, has ownership of this exchange. While an astute business might know what its customers most common questions are, having a live chat function is a way to put that power in the hands of your customer base. That way you get information and can provide direction, while sales are managed in real time.

2. Email Outreach

Email remains one of the most valuable tools businesses have to gather candid customer feedback. Email is at its most effective when customers get a fast response, and an organized system is created to collect, manage and digest customer feedback in order to send follow-up emails.

3. Customer Feedback Surveys

An even older method of getting customer feedback is the survey, and this old dog still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Surveys continue to be popular, especially online surveys, and that’s because they work.

4. Phone Calls

It’s true that many people (especially younger ones) are less likely to want to interact on the phone, if you can get a customer on the phone there is no better way to understand them.

The phone is a more personal and intimate communicative tool. Surveys, emails and even chat are still a distant way to connect. Hearing a person’s voice opens up a whole other dimension to understanding. The call can also help to get a customer excited to speak to a real person with whom they can express how a product or service could be improved.

5. Customer Suggestion Boards

You probably remember seeing a suggestion box in the corner of an office you’ve worked at. similarly you can arrange a customer suggestion boards to get know what customer expect from us.

Q.Why are some projects terminated before they are completed? When would it be wise to do so?

There are few alerts which shout out loud that it is in the best interest of the team and the company to terminate the project. Here are the red flags you should watch out for:

Expensive or does not meet company’s goal

Make an estimate of the total cost of the project in the planning stage itself. A few thousand dollars here and there are manageable, but when you see the figure going way over your approximate value, it is better to put an end to the project right in the initiation stage. Also, if the project does not go well with the strategic plan of the company, it should not be given the green signal.

Your competitors are doing a better job

As a project manager, you may be motivated to prove your mettle and take your company ahead in the market, but think logically and determine if it is possible. Many a times, you may be motivated at the start of the project but once you begin with it and have to face grave challenges one after another, the positive drive may fizzle out and you may be left with a project that is going nowhere.

Project gets out of control

When operations get way beyond control or when damages cannot be repaired anymore, you know it is time to terminate the project.

Important or priority project comes up

Businesses take up several projects simultaneously. However, there are some projects which need more time, energy and resources. If a certain project is stopping you from allocating the required resources in a bigger, important project, it is better to let go of the smaller project.

Failure in testing process

It is sad to see a project fail during testing. However, if the team members gave it all that they could and the project still could not succeed, putting an end to the project is a sensible choice rather than spending twice the energy and resources on it again.

Q.List the several lessons learned from a project in which you were a project team member or project manager. How will these lessons learned inform your future projects?

following are the lesson learned:

Be Clear On The Report’s Audience And Purpose

Take Help From Different Project Documents That Are Already Prepared

Make Sure You Know What Is Going Right In The Project

Make Sure You Know What Is Going Wrong In The Project

Compare Costs And Results Of Different Activities

Come Up With All The Improvements And Solutions

Most project managers understand the importance of lessons learned on current and future projects. Capturing and regularly updating the lessons learned can keep the project on track. In the long run, it can also help continually improve how organizations execute projects.