Chapter 9: Closing the Project

Lessons Learned

The purpose of identifying and documenting lessons learned is to capitalize on the knowledge and experience gained on the project to improve performance on future projects. The project organization should establish a knowledge base system that includes an easily accessible repository that encourages project managers and teams to retrieve lessons learned or by key words.

The project team should not wait until the end of the project to capture and document lessons learned; it should done on an ongoing basis throughout the planning and performing phases of the project. This can also help to improve performance during the remainder of performing the project. A system should be set to capture these learning moments and to maintain a list of lessons learned during performance of the project. With such a system, some items will not be forgotten. Otherwise, if the project was for a long duration, some key people involved in situations that might have provided good lessons learned early in the project may no longer be associated with the project when the project moves into the closing phase, and therefore might not be available to share their experience.

Information regarding lessons learned and associated recommendations internal post-project earned evaluation meetings and from feedback from the customer or sponsor should also be incorporated into the organization’s lessons learned knowledge base.

An important consideration regarding lessons learned is to ensure that they are documented, communicated, and used by project managers and teams on future projects. One way to do this might be to require it to be an agenda item at the initial kickoff meeting for a new project. Lesson learned can also be a good topic for any internal project management training that is conducted by the project organization.

Chapter 8: Managing Risks

Control Risks

Risk control includes implementing risk response plans and monitoring risks. Risk response plans should be implemented as appropriate when their trigger point is reached. Implementing risk response plans often requires spending additional materials and so forth. Project prices and budges should include a contingency reserve to pay for additional costs associated with implementing response plans.

Risk monitoring involves regularly reviewing the risk assessment matrix throughout the project. During the project, it is important to regularly review and evaluate all risks to determine if there are any changes to the likelihood of occurrence or the potential impact of any risks. These factors can determine if a particular risk has increased in priority for attention or if the risk has diminished in importance. Furthermore, new risks may be identified that were not considered as risks earlier in the project but now need to be added to the risk assessment matrix. For example, early tests of the prototype f a new product indicate the product may now not meet the original performance specifications.  Another situation may be that because of previous delays in the design phase, the construction phase of a facility expansion is now scheduled to take place in the middle of the hurricane season. During a project, the customer may initiate changes to the project work scope, schedule, or budget that could affect the assessment of previously defined risks or result in the identification of new risks.

Project meetings are good forum for regularly reviewing, updating, and addressing risks. The agenda for project status review meetings should include an item regarding risk assessment. Particular attention should be given to reviewing the trigger points for each risk to determine if any risk response plans ore on the verge of having to be implemented.

Chapter 7: Determining costs, Budget and Earned Value.

The total project cost is often estimated during the initiating phase of the project or when the project charter or a proposal is prepared, but detailed plans are not usually prepared at that time. However, during the planning phase of the project, specific activities are defined and a network plan is created. Once specific activities are defined, then estimates can be made of resources, durations and costs for each specific activity. Resources include people, materials, equipment, facilities, and so forth. The estimated activity resources are used for estimating activity costs. The estimated cost for each specific activity can include the following elements:

1.      Labor costs. These are the estimated costs for the various types or classifications of people who are expected to work on the project such as painters, designers and computer programmers. The labor costs are based on estimated work time (not necessarily the same as the activity estimated duration) and the dollar labor rate for each person or classification.

2.      Materials costs. These are the estimated costs of materials that the project team or contractor needs to purchase for the project, such as paint, lumber, piping, shrubbery, carpeting, electrical cable, paper, art supplies, food, computers and application software.

3.      Equipment costs. Some projects require equipment that must be purchased as part of the project. Equipment can include items such as computers and machinery. For example, a project to construct a clinic would include the purchase of various types of medical equipment. Or a project to upgrade a manufacturing facility may include the purchase of new production machinery. Or a new office might include the purchase of new computer systems.

4.      Facilities costs. Some projects may require special facilities or additional space for the project team, for security reasons, to store materials, or to build, assemble, and test the project end item (deliverable). If such facilities are required, the estimated costs for renting the space need to be included.

5.      Subcontractors and consultants cost. When project teams or contractors do not have the expertise or resources to do certain project tasks, they may outsource some of the work to subcontractors or consultants to perform those activities. Examples of such tasks include designing a brochure, developing a training manual, developing software, and catering a reception.

6.      Travel costs. If travel (other than local travel) is required during the project, the costs for travel, such as airfare, lodging, and meals, need to be included.

7.      Reserve. In addition to the above items, the project team or contractor may include an estimated amount for contingencies to cover unexpected situations that may come during the project, such as items that may have been overlooked when the initial project scope was defined, activities that may have to be redone because they may not work the first time (redesigns), or a high probability or high impact risk that may occur. Often there is a separate budget (management reserve set aside for contingencies at the project level rather than for specific activities.

Chapter 6: Resource Utilization

The consideration of resources adds another dimension to planning and scheduling. It is necessary to estimate the types and quantities of resources required to perform each activity. Resources can include people, materials, equipment, tools, facilities and so forth. A resource requirements plan shows the expected utilization of resources by time period during the time span of the project.

In many projects, the quantities are limited. Several activities may require the same resources at the same time, and there may not be sufficient resources available to satisfy all the demands. If sufficient resources are not available when required, some activities may have to be delayed until a later time when resources are available. Therefore, resources can constrain the project schedule.

Resource-Limited Scheduling

Resource-Limited Scheduling is a method for developing the shortest schedule when the quantity of available resources is fixed. This method is appropriate when the resources available for the project are limited and these resources limits cannot be exceeded. 

For a large project that requires many different resources, each of which has a different limit of availability, resource-limited scheduling can get very complicated. Various project management information systems are available that can assist with this process.

Resource-Limited Scheduling will extend the project completion time, if necessary; keep it within the resource limits. It is an iterative method in which resources are allocated to activities based on the least slack. When several activities need the same limited resource at the same time, the activities with the second slack time have the first priority. If resources are left over, the activities with the second least slack have the next priority and so forth. If other activities need the resources but the resource has been totally allocated to higher-priority activities, the lower-priority activities get delayed; as their slack becomes worse they eventually move up the priority ladder. This delaying of activities can extend the project completion time.

Chapter 5: Developing the Schedule

Once a project actually starts, it is important to monitor the progress to ensure that everything is going according to the plan. The key to good project control is measuring actual progress and comparing it to planned progress on a timely and regular basis and taking any needed corrective action immediately.

Establish project start and completion times

To establish a basis from which to calculate a schedule using the estimated duration for the activities, it is necessary to select an estimated start time for when the project is expected to begin and a required completion time for when the project must be done. These two times (or dates) define the overall window or envelope, of time in which the project must be completed.

The sponsor or customer often states the project required completion time in the project charter, request for proposal (RFP), or the contract – for example, the project must be finished by June 30, the feasibility study must be completed in time for the board meeting on September 30, or the annual reports must be in the mail by January 15.

The contractor, however, may not want to commit to completing the project by a specific date until the customer has approved the contract. In such cases, the contract may state, “The project will be completed within 90 days after signing of the contract.” Here, the overall project time is stated in terms of a cycle time (90 days) rather than in terms of specific calendar dates.

Developing Project Schedule

Once you have an estimated duration for each activity in the network and have established an overall window of time in which the project must be completed, you must determine (based on durations and sequence) whether the project can be done by the required completion time. To determine this, you can develop a project schedule that provides a timetable for each activity and shows:

1.      The earliest times (or dates) at which each activity can start and finish, based on the project estimated start time (or date).

2.      The latest times (or dates) by which by which each activity must start and finish to complete the project by its required completion time (or date).

Incorporating changes into the schedule

During the project changes may occur that have an impact on the schedule. As was noted earlier, these changes might be initiated by the customer or the project team, or they might be the result of an anticipated occurrence. Here are some examples of changes initiated by the customer:

1.      A home buyer tells the builder that the family room should be larger and the bedroom windows should be relocated.

2.      A customer tells the project team developing an information system that the system must have the capability to produce a previously unmentioned set of reports and graphics, which requires additional new elements in the database.

These types of changes represent revisions to the original project scope and will have an impact on the schedule and budget.