Project Management

BSB20315-7

Lecture 14
Project Completion &
Review
 Learning Outcomes

• Completion and handover

• Reviews and learning
• Justifying it

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 Project Completion & Review
– An Introduction
“We don’t carry out ‘lessons learned reviews’ at the
end of projects now. We carry out ‘lessons
identified reviews’. We know we don’t learn”
• Vital and powerful
– On-going learning
– Continuous improvement
– Reflective learning
• How the last phases of ‘check and act on the results
of the checks’ are managed will determine the views
of the stakeholders on the project outcomes and
future project success
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 Project Completion & Review
– An Introduction (Continued)
• Challenges
– An objective review process objective whilst including
the rich picture
– Relating procedure performance to project performance
– Long-term programmes of improvement versus short
term, usually financial, assessment
– Satisfying all stakeholder groups whilst looking to the
next project

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 Completion and handover
• Work stops for many reasons
– Successful completion
– Sponsors’ needs change or they see poor performance
– Lack of resources
• Reviews should take place at successful completion and
premature termination
– But staff are dispersed without provision
– But staff must be kept busy and so are posted to the next
project
– Results in ‘hedgehog syndrome’ (Lecture 2)
• Mistakes are repeated
• Poor improvement in the organisation
• Frustration for individuals
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 Completion and handover (Continued)
• At completion
– Completer-finishers (Lecture 11) are in their element
– Other role types anxious to start next project
– Proper completion requires discipline, investment of
time and resource
• Elements that require a project manager’s attention
– Incentives to complete
– Documentation of process is complete
– Project systems are closed down
– Review activities immediately
– Appraisal and relocation of staff
– Disposal of assets
– Stakeholders are satisfied
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 Completion
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

• Vital to
– Finish all activities
– Release resources
– Minimise costs
• Trade-offs: time and resources invested versus proper
completion
– If activities are abandoned, the benefits of the review are lost
– If close-down processes are long and drawn out, nothing is
ever finished, overheads remain and escalate
– The approach often depends on the success of the project
• Little incentive to complete if team members are contracted by
time
– A form of bonus is ideal
– Free extensions to the main task must not be allowed
– “While you are here will you...”
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 Documentation
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

Documentation
• The least exciting part of project
Purpose
• Evidence that the project has been completed in a proper
manner
• Guidance to the customer on operation and maintenance
of product
• Allows future work on similar projects to have a good
starting point
In addition
• If documentation is left to the end of the project much may
be lost
– Include this activity as part of planning and the WBS
– It should not be ‘squeezable’ or less important
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 Documentation
(Completion and handover)(Continued)
Documents should include
• Formal items
• Correspondence, contracts, permissions, letters,
memoranda
• Communication documents
• Individual notes/logbooks
– Professionally vital in case of negligence enquiry
• Keep for the life of the product or 7 years, whichever is
longer
• Need
– Policy for electronic documents needed
• Hard copy or consigned to data warehouse?
– A guide of where any item is stored
– Planning (vital)
– Check lists (a visual tool and evidence)
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 Closing down the project systems
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

• Activity level and spend should slow

• Accounting and quality systems remain live
– Late invoices/overhanging administration activities will need to
be charged
– Ensure that unauthorised spending is curtailed
• A formal note of closure informs staff and support systems
• In contract projects, legal closure happens with customer ‘sign
off’
– Continuing to provide ‘free’ consultancy is tempting
– Cannot afford to cut customer off completely
– Cannot afford to provide services not charged
– Poor handover or failure of documentation signal further work
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 Conducting immediate project reviews
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

Conducting immediate project reviews

• Provide further control or corrective action
• Immediate post-mortem on activities
• Rapid feedback on individual performance
– Individuals know what should be repeated
– Managers can identify training needs
– The organisation can assess for future teams’ work
• Rapid feedback on systems
– Identifies short-term needs: procedural changes, changes
in skills
• Provides a case history
• The reviewer needs to know context and challenges
– Could be the sponsor, the line manager, other project
managers, project office staff or an external consultant
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 Conducting immediate project reviews
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

• Long-term audit and review

• An audit of the project manager by the team is
beneficial
• Characteristics to assess (usually by questionnaire)
– Attitude
– Skills
– Approachability
– Openness
– Ability to delegate authority yet share responsibility
– Ability to represent the project team to others
– Willingness to embrace change
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 Conducting immediate project reviews
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

• Demonstrates that the PM is serious about

improving the ‘management product’
• Feedback reinforces good behaviour and provides a
path for change where improvement is needed
• Key to identifying satisfaction and levels of
motivation

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 Appraisal, relocation of staff and
disposal of surplus assets
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

• Appraisal
– Vital part of nurturing human capital
– Skill often assumed to be present but managers
need training
• Staff relocation
– Project managers may have little direct influence
– Supporting the team will enhance personal
professional networks

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 Appraisal, relocation of staff and
disposal of surplus assets
(Completion and handover)(Continued)
• Disposal of assets
– Surplus stock and hardware not absorbed
represents waste
– Culture problems:
• Elimination from the accounts/site/view the sooner
the better
• Paper work will cost more to raise than the sale of
the property
– If valuable materials skipped, left to deteriorate,
‘appropriated’ revenue lost to project and
organisation
– There are beneficial means of disposal
(outsourcing)
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 Ensuring that all stakeholders are
satisfied
(Completion and handover)(Continued)

• Marketing influences consumer behaviour

– Enhance the customers’ image of the project organisation by
selling success
– Data from project reviews
– Utilise the concept of ‘product surround’
• or ‘an ounce of image is worth a pound of performance’
– Good publicity can have internal benefits
• good performance will be recognised
• Marketing professionals should be involved to maximise returns
– The media may pick up on success from a press release
• Getting stakeholder satisfaction in the project’s success may be
a challenge
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 Reviews and learning

Structuring improvement activities

• A PM with a clear improvement strategy will improve
the performance of future projects
• Learning before doing
– Ensure that necessary knowledge and skills are
available in advance
– Identify sources of ideas for change – this can take
time
– Using consultants and/or benchmarking are an aid

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 Structuring improvement activities
(Reviews and learning)(Continued)

• Learning by doing
– Elements can be learned from previous activities
– Reviewing information from previous projects is a good
starting point
– Done consistently over a long period results in a highly
developed process

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 Structuring improvement activities
(Reviews and learning)(Continued)

Figure 16.1 Process improvement

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 Learning before doing – the role of
external knowledge
(Reviews and learning)(Continued)

• Training and education

– Are there benefits from going on a project management
training course?
• Good time
• Quality manual…. that gathers dust
• But no one else in the organisation does it this way
• Beneficial if an immediate application
• Beneficial if there is a group of people who will work in the
new method
– Change requires a critical mass – over 80% of people working
in a process must be capable and willing to change
– Support can be provided by project office (Chapter 4)
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 Learning before doing – the role of
external knowledge
(Reviews and learning)(Continued)
• Consultants provide specific services
– Integrator: overall service as single point of customer
contact
– Honesty-broker: an external independent view more
acceptable than that of colleagues
– Change agent: the focus for change activities
– Knowledge provider: expert in knowledge or
techniques
– Resource provider: where others do not have
time/capability to do
– Checker: checking the process
– Trainer: imparts knowledge across the organisation
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 Learning before doing – the role of
external knowledge
(Reviews and learning)(Continued)

– Employing consultants
• Decide on what must be achieved and how
• Evaluate suitable firms
– Membership of appropriate organisations/ talk to
previous clients/evaluate capabilities
• Evaluate costs/benefits
– Financial cost but benefit long-term
– Someone impartial stating the obvious

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 Learning by doing – the role of
audit and review
(Reviews and learning)(Continued)
• After completion when results become evident
• ‘Praise for the unworthy followed by punishment for the
innocent’?
• Process that requires a reason to exist, time, information,
resources, credibility
• Goal is to ensure continuous improvement is followed through
• The audit process
– Establish actual procedures (financial, quality, environment)
– Check documents to see if procedures were followed
– Report suggesting deficiencies and irregularities
• The review process
– Study overall performance relative to constraints
– Identify failed or inadequate procedures
– Report suggesting improvements
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 Learning by doing – the role of
audit and review
(Reviews and learning)(Continued)

Table 16.1 Review and audit criteria

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 Reviews and learning (Continued)
Long-term review
• On-going measurement of project outcomes
• Poor quality of product may become apparent
• Checks needed on assumptions of ‘whole-life costs’
• Individual reflections on experiences
Carrying out reviews
• Reviews may become finger-pointing exercises allocating
blame
• For constructive reviews
– Focus on processes not individual
– Use factual data
– Allow rehearsal of alternatives
– Avoid jumping to conclusions by using problem-solving
techniques
– Discourage glib classification
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 Justifying it
• Calculate financial implication of failure to provide business
case for improvement
• Break down quality costs (Table 16.2) into
– Prevention
– Appraisal
– Failure
• Internal (before customer receives product/service)
• External (after customer receives it)
• Costs usually higher than prevention and appraisal
• Increasing prevention and appraisal generally makes for mid-
term savings
– although short-term costs will increase
• BS 6143: Identification of quality costs, prevention, appraisal
and failure models; pro forma for quality costs reports
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 Justifying it (Continued)

Table 16.2 Elements of quality cost

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 Summary

• How will the project end?

– Positive statement of closure
– Capture knowledge gained through review and audit processes
• Close out
– Shut-down project systems
– Ensure all activities completed
– Prepare for reviews
• Learning process
– Learn before doing (identify appropriate knowledge)
– Learn by doing (review and integrate knowledge)
• Costs of failure
– Start with quality costing exercise
– Results may be surprising
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