Project Management Methodology Project Closing

Project closing stage Must be performed for all projects, successfully completed or shut off by management Activity at project closing stage – case of success: Evaluate a project success Complete project management documentation Complete technical documentation Prepare implementation plan Learned lessons review

Evaluate a project success Review your Project Definition and Project Charter documents Discuss with the team: Are all project goals achieved? Are all tasks been completed? Are you on (above/below) budget? Do you meet the deadline? The answers will bring you understanding of how much of success you can claim

Evaluate a project success Consider the quality of your project separately Testing results Requirements met (in details) Processes were followed (in details) Quality control metrics show success Be specific with tasks implementation to prevent new security risks.

Complete project management documentation Have finalized (up to date) and approved: Project charter Project plan Project monitoring reports Close your logs Issues log Decisions log Risks occurrence log

Complete technical documentation Make sure that all technical documents are written and sent to the librarian Suggested or implemented revisions to standard operating procedures Suggested or implemented revisions of company and users policy and procedures Documentation for users training

Prepare implementation plan Discuss move to production with IT department manager Configuration manager Information security manager Discover grey areas and gaps Decide how to deal with them Prepare initial operational plan (see below)

Learned lessons Handle a separate meeting with your team to discuss what was going right and wrong during the project implementation Summarize the suggestions Prepare the reports where you should indicate major issues, how you addressed them, and was it successful or not. What can be done better for this kind of projects?

Learned lessons (cont.) Think in terms of project management areas: Scope, Requirements – were they well defined? Resources – were they assigned sufficiently? People – was the team professional skill acceptable for the project? Organizational model – was it complete and suitable? Communication – was it planned and implemented sufficiently? Training – was it good enough?

Operational plan for IT projects Plan must contain processes and procedures for: How a new technology starts within existing operational environment What technology/security problems should be expected What to do in the case of the problems Plan must contain resources assignment: Who will handle a new technology (by names) Configuration Maintenance When the transferring takes place How much it costs

Operational plan items example New web interface solution project Processes and procedures: Communicate the start date to users Communicate the rules of operating with the page To whom users should communicate their problems, e.g. cannot connect to the page, confusing design, bad performance

Operational plan items example (cont.) Processes and procedures: How the supporting personnel must address the issues What to do with error messages during the transition stage (may be different from the fully operational stage) You may notice that there is a lot about communication

Closing IT project checklist You are ready to close a project when All tasks are 100% completed Paper work completed Security state reviewed and approved Transition to production is prepared Initial operational plan is prepared Required training completed

Closing stage – project failure Finalize the paper work Project charter at its latest stage Work completed by the time of closing Resources consumed Work efforts Cost

Closing stage – project failure (cont.) Close the logs: Issues log Decisions log Risks occurrence log Do not forget to record the decision re. the project closing Finalize project monitoring reports If requested, write the report – overview of the project implementation