This text has been up to date to be absolutely aligned to PRINCE2 7 (2023 version).
A venture has a begin, a center and an finish, so closing a venture is a vital a part of the venture administration lifecycle.
Closing a venture efficiently means , clear transition for the venture group. This includes transferring possession of the merchandise to the operational group, and makes it clear that the venture group are now not chargeable for them.
The project manager and the group will have the ability to transfer on to their subsequent task.
A transparent finish to the venture additionally gives a possibility to make sure that any targets that weren’t achieved through the venture may be addressed sooner or later.
How does PRINCE2® deal with closing a venture?
Closing a venture in PRINCE2® makes use of a variant of the Managing a Stage Boundary course of, as this closure exercise occurs on the finish of the final stage. The work required to shut the venture needs to be deliberate as a part of this closing stage. You additionally use this course of if the venture closes prematurely.
The Closing a Mission course of tackles the tip of the present stage in a barely completely different method to the opposite levels: as an alternative of gaining approval to maneuver to the subsequent stage, this course of features approval to shut the venture and handover to operations as an alternative.
What are the goals of the Closing a Mission course of?
The goals of the Closing a Mission course of are:
- To confirm that there’s person acceptance of the venture’s merchandise
- To make sure that the operational group is ready to help the merchandise when the venture is closed
- To evaluate venture efficiency in opposition to the baselines that had been set
- To evaluate any advantages which have already been realized, replace the forecast for the remaining advantages and plan a evaluate of these advantages in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later
- To make sure that provision has been made to deal with all of the open points and dangers, with follow-on actions or suggestions.
And naturally to make sure the venture is closed down in a structured {and professional} method, and never dropped like a sizzling potato whereas everybody runs on to the subsequent shiny factor.
How do I shut down a venture?
There are 4 areas to cowl when closing a venture. Let’s check out these, and also you’ll see that they’re just about widespread sense.
1. Put together the closure
Whether or not your venture is going through a untimely shut or as a part of the pure plan for the work, it’s a must to put together the closing stage.
If essential, current a closure advice to the board, though the chances are they are going to already know that closure is on the playing cards.
Nonetheless, it’s a must to inform individuals the venture is closing, draft a closure notification for the venture board to evaluate, archive something that wants arching and tidy up your data in your venture administration device. Shut out something excellent within the danger register as nicely.
2. Affirm venture acceptance
Subsequent, the venture’s merchandise should be handed over to the operational group. This might be finished in a single go, or it may need occurred as a part of a phased supply.
If something is just not but accomplished, put together a follow-on motion checklist or suggestions for the operational group to choose up, together with scheduling a evaluate of advantages at a later date.
Handovers don’t need to be one-and-done. You could possibly have handed over deliverables on the finish of each stage, so if that’s the case, simply tie up any free ends at this level.
Examine that the benefits management approach is up to date and that there’s a plan to measure and monitor any advantages that can be delivered after venture shut.
3. Consider the venture
This gives the chance to evaluate the venture’s unique intent as agreed again within the initiation stage, in opposition to what was really achieved. Have a look at the goals, key success criteria, targets, acceptance standards, KPIs and the rest that was decided at the start, and do a comparability to see how shut you had been to attaining these.
The analysis may be offered as an Finish Mission Report, which covers how the venture carried out in opposition to targets, tolerances and the baseline schedule. The analysis can even embrace a Lessons Learned Report, in order that future initiatives can study from what went nicely and what didn’t go so nicely on this venture.
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What if the venture is closing earlier than it completes?
Deliberate closure isn’t the one method that initiatives finish.
Initiatives typically have to be stopped earlier than they’re deliberate to complete. There are lots of causes for this, together with that the enterprise atmosphere or technique could have modified, negating the necessity for the venture. Perhaps the venture isn’t viable any longer. Perhaps the important thing stakeholder pushing for the venture has left and everyone seems to be relieved they will lastly drop it.
Whatever the scenario, the venture can nonetheless be closed in a managed method. Following a construction and never merely abandoning the venture lets the venture supervisor salvage something of worth and verify that senior administration is conscious of any gaps left by cancelling the venture.
When a venture is closed prematurely, there could also be some merchandise which were accomplished. These may be handed over to the operational group if acceptable.
It is usually helpful to inform the administration groups that the venture group can be launched early and the group members can be accessible to tackle different assignments.
When a venture is stopped early, it’s actually vital to guarantee that there’s sufficient communication to the enterprise and the venture group.
Folks don’t wish to be related to failed initiatives, so attempt to talk the optimistic points of what the venture managed to realize earlier than it was stopped, and clearly clarify the enterprise rationale for stopping the venture at the moment.
The place can I get extra steerage?
Chapter 19 is the PRINCE2® 7 manual reference that you just want. Should you did a coaching course, you may also refer again to your notes there.
Your subsequent steps
- Learn extra on how to close a project.
- Get a venture closure template out of your PMO and begin taking a look at what’s required to fill it in.
- Discuss to your group concerning the merchandise that want handing over and make plans to try this as step one to shutting down the venture.
