As a project nears its close-out stage, executives and others often rush to the next project and critical close-out activities such as: obtaining final customer acceptance of deliverables, performing evaluations post-project and implementation audits are often done quickly or skipped altogether. However, these tasks are critically important, particularly when the risks associated with imperfect closure are taken into consideration.

Any project, presumably, is performed under an agreed contract with specific deliverables that are shown in a statement of work, described through a work breakdown structure, and measured by means of a project network diagram and/or diagram. Gantt or some other mechanism. It would be surprising if in the initial planning and subsequent contracting phase no specific attention had been paid in the statement of work to when and how customer acceptance, overall project evaluation and post-implementation audits should be carried out. Project success and completion can only be signed off when key stakeholders agree that the scope of work and contract conditions have been met.

Unfortunately, in my experience, little attention is paid within contracting to the agreed-upon details associated with closing a project. The seller is interested in the business; the buyer has a need that needs to be satisfied. Sometimes the lead negotiators and project completion decision makers are not the same people, especially on the buying side, which can lead to unnecessary delays and rework before the project is finally approved. Indeed, the author has experienced such delays and frustrations in dealings with respect to contracting with the United Nations. In such cases, failure to pay attention to well-defined and measurable project closeout details can result in delays in both project acceptance and final payment. These problems are also identified by Wysocki (pp. 284).

Wysocki (p. 284) further describes a detailed framework for closing a project based on 6 steps, which are:
Get customer acceptance of deliverables
Make sure all deliverables are installed
Make sure documentation is in place
Get client approval on final report
Performing the Post-Implementation Audit
celebrating success

Ideally, such a framework should be part of any contract and included in any description of milestone development and measurement. A project isn’t done until it’s done, and it shouldn’t require lengthy discussions in the final hour when many project team members may already have been reassigned to other tasks.

The post implementation report is likely to be skipped by project management as it is only uploaded within the overall contract. However, it is very valuable, not only in terms of dispute resolution, but also in terms of quantifying the successes and failures within a project. This learning contributes to the experience that can be transferred to other projects.

Criteria for a detailed post-implementation review should include:

Was the project objective achieved?
Did you meet customer expectations?
Did you meet specifications, including on time and on budget?
Was the client satisfied enough that he could re-contract new projects with the supplier?
What worked and what didn’t?
How did the project team members perform?

The risks of not paying enough attention to project closure from the start in terms of scope, definition, milestone planning and contract details are considerable. The most obvious include delays in project closeout, final payment, potential disputes and litigation, customer satisfaction and loyalty, staff morale, and vendor reputation.

There is an old proverb (anonymous) and paraphrased by William Shakespeare in his play,
Richard III (Act 5. Scene IV). The original proverb goes like this:

For lack of a nail the shoe was lost.
For lack of a horseshoe the horse was lost.
For lack of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a horseman the battle was lost.
For lack of battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for lack of a horseshoe nail.

This can be melodramatic, but it perhaps highlights the need to clearly define project closure and success as much as it does to define project scope.

james turnbull
Principal Associate
November 2011
(As submitted to the University of Liverpool, November 2011).

Ref: Wysocki, RK (2009) Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme. 5th ed. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing.