Important Terms and Definitions - Closing the Project

Let us wrap up this section by covering the important terms we learnt.

• 360-degree survey - A form of feedback from all around the entity being evaluated.
• Close procurements - The process used to complete and settle each contract, which includes resolving any open item and closing each contract applicable to the project.
• Close project or phase - A process used to finalize all activities across all of the process groups to formally close the project or a phase of it. It’s also used to establish the procedures for administrative and contract closures.
• Procurement audit - A structured review of the procurement process with the purpose of identifying successes and failures from the planning through the executing stage of the project.
• Project/product transition - Handing over of the project output to the appropriate party.
• SOX compliance - Compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also called the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002.
• Verify scope - The process of formally accepting the completed project deliverables.

Prev: Summary - Closing the Project

Next: Introduction to Professional Responsibility

Summary - Closing the Project

We are nearing the end of the PMP exam preparation study material. Let us quickly summarize what we learnt about closing the project.

• All projects, big or small, terminated or completed, should go through the closure stage, which involves the closure of both parts of the project: in house and procurements.
• The project deliverables validated through the quality control process are verified for their scope through the Verify Scope process.
• These verified deliverables go through the project closure process for acceptance by the appropriate party, such as the customer or the project sponsor.
• The same process is used to close a project or a phase of it and is formally called the Close Project or Phase process.
• If the project has a procurement component, the products from procurement must first go through the procurement closure process for acceptance by the project manager or other authorized party, and then the accepted product must go through the project closure process for acceptance by the appropriate party, such as the customer or the project sponsor.

Prev: Finishing Touch

Next: Important Terms & Definitions - Closing the Project

Chapter 89: Big Picture of Closing the Project

Project closure refers to a set of tasks that are required to formally end the project. There are two kinds of projects that you need to close formally:

• Completed projects - A project that has met its completion criteria falls into this category.
• Terminated projects - A project that was terminated before its completion falls into this category. A project can be terminated at various stages for various reasons. Some examples are:

o The project management plan is not approved for whatever reason.
o The project has been executing, but you have run out of resources, and no more resources are available.
o The project has been cancelled because it was going nowhere.
o The project has been indefinitely postponed because there is not a large enough market for the product it would produce.

A project, in general, may have in-house activities i.e., project activities being performed within the performing organization and procurement activities. Accordingly, there are two aspects of project closure:

• Close the in-house activities of the project.
• Close the procurement part of the project.

Project closure includes the following activities:

• Activities to verify that all deliverables have been provided and accepted
• Activities to confirm that all the project requirements, including stakeholder requirements, have been met
• Activities to verify that the completion or exit criteria have been met
• Activities to ensure that the project product is transferred to the right individual or group
• Activities to review the project for lessons learned and archive the project records

You need to obtain final closure, such as acceptance signoffs, contract closure, or receipts for both the in-house part and the procurement part of the project and from both internal and external vendors and customers. You perform this task by using standard accounting practices and following the relevant organizational and legal procedures, such as SOX compliance.

Trivia:
SOX refers to The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. It is a United States Federal law enacted on July 30, 2002, in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals that affected companies such as Enron and WorldCom. These scandals cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of affected companies collapsed and therefore shook public confidence in the nation’s securities markets.

The Big Picture of this process can be illustrated using the picture below:

This includes:

1. Verify the scope of the project deliverables developed in house.
2. Accept the procured deliverables through the procurement closure process.
3. Get the deliverables from Step 1 and Step 2 and get them accepted by the customer or sponsor to actually close the project.
4. Archive the project documents.

In a nutshell, all the aspects of the project closure should be covered, such as financial closure, legal closure, and administrative closure, with all the relevant parties, such as vendors and customers external and internal to the performing organization.

Prev: Introduction to Closing the Project

Next: Verifying the Scope of Project Deliverables

Chapter 88: Introduction to Closing the Project

We have successfully stepped into the last stage of the project. The last deliverable on the project schedule has been completed, and you think that the project has been a big success.
However, hold off on the project party for a few more days; the project has not ended yet. It has just reached another stage called the project closing stage, and, as a project manager, you need to continue monitoring and controlling the project through this stage. Also, recall that there are two kinds of project work; in house and procured. So you need to put a closure on the procured component of the project and then run the procured deliverables through the project closure process. The deliverables developed in house should be verified to check whether they meet the scope before running them through the closure process. In other words, what was planned to be done has actually been done. So that nothing falls between the cracks and for legal reasons, you need to formally close the project. This involves finalizing all the project and project management activities and giving them a proper closure. You should do this even when the project is being terminated before the planned finish line (A Total Disaster). After all the planned deliverables both developed in house and procured have been verified, the project should be closed with the acceptance of the deliverables by the appropriate party and by archiving the appropriate documents.

This is what we are going to do in the next few chapters.

Prev: Important Terms and Definitions - Monitoring & Controlling the Golden Triangle

Next: Big Picture of Closing the Project