Procept courses accredited by the CCA for Gold Seal certification credits

Project Closeout Best Practices

Project Closeout Best Practices

As project managers, we tend to keep our eyes focused on the finish line. For us, it is all about on-time completion. Once the deliverables have been handed over to our project sponsor or client, we relax -- the project is over. But is it really?

Project closeout always presents challenges: from getting final approvals, to performing administrative and contract closure, to capturing lessons learned, and more. At the rapid pace of business today, efficient project closure is a must and may even give you a competitive edge. This 1-day workshop introduces project managers to the best practices for getting final signoffs and closing out projects. Project managers will come away with a structured closeout framework and some templates that can be used to complete an orderly project closeout.

This course is also sometimes called "Getting to Done: Project Closeout Best Practices".

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will gain practical skills to:

  • Use a structured approach to get final sign-off and closong out a project
  • Describe the barriers to project closeout including both scope and lifecycle barriers
  • Describe how to overcome closeout activities including financial, administrative, and legal closure (and more!)
  • Use lessons learned to drive continuous improvement

 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This course is intended for beginner and intermediate project managers across all industries.

PREREQUISITE

There is no prerequisite for this course.

MATERIALS

Participants will receive a course workbook with copies of all presentation slides, case study materials, forms, and a closeout checklist.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Introduction

  • Introduction and definitions

 

Start With The End In Mind

  • The Business Case
  • The Project Charter
  • Scope Definition and Management Plan
  • Quality Management Plan
  • Stakeholder Management Plan

 

Getting Final Approvals

  • Group Activity
  • Requesting Final Approval
  • Deliverable Acceptance Form

 

Scope Barriers

  • Business Value
  • Compliance With Scope
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Quality Issues
  • Punch List Template
  • Case Study: New House Construction Project

 

Lifecycle Barriers

  • Operational
  • Support Systems
  • Training and Documentation
  • Customer Satisfaction

 

Post-Approval Closure Activities

  • Accounting Closure
  • Settle Contracts

 

Contract Closure Activites

  • Project Financial Summary Template
  • Legal Closure

 

Administrative Closure Activities

  • Redeploy Resources
  • Financial Closure
  • Provide Feedback

 

Lessons Learned Closure Activities

  • After Action Review
  • The 5 Why's
  • Case Study: Arbor Industries
  • Case Study: Root Cause Analysis
  • Project Completion Template

 

Marketing Closure Activities

Project Lifestyle Closure Activities

  • Project closeout checklist

 

Wrap Up