Module 9: Project ClosureWe would like to acknowledge the support of the Project Management Institute and the International Institute for Learning, Inc. for permitting the use of their intellectual property in this curriculum.

Module 9 Learning ObjectivesUpon completion of this module, participants will be able to:Identify Project Manager responsibilities for closing projectsIdentify tasks for proper finance, administrative and contract closure

Lead end of project learning

Project End, Extension, Expansion?

Role of the Project Manager during ClosureVerify your project scope and stakeholder acceptanceFormally terminate activities of the projectClose project finances, administration and contractsArticulate and complete a handover strategyReport to donorsPromote learning

Scope Verification & Stakeholder AcceptanceDid you do what you said you were going to do?Two steps:Sit down with your team and check the WBSSit down with the stakeholders

Financial ClosureHas all permitted funding been received from the donor? Have all receivables (project advances, travel advances, and advances to vendors) been liquidated or transferred to another project number? Have all payables been paid?

Administrative ClosureClose out the booksSet up project archives or filesHandle equipment, facilities, etc.

Contract ClosureContract ClosureFormal closeout of all contracts, review of deliverables, including internal Legal Closing Procedures and External Closing Procedures.Internal CloseoutActivities required by the agency and by contract such as; terminating the contract for moving out agency operations, relieving personnel contracted by agency, etc.External CloseoutLegal termination of any contracted support during project, including acceptance of deliverables, etc.

Administrative ClosureAdministrative CloseoutActivities that are required for reassignment of personnel and other resources, documents required by the agency or donorInternal Closeout Activities required by the agency such as; moving out of agency operations, return of assets, packing up of daily operations. Including documenting lessons learned and report to donor.External CloseoutActivities established with other working groups or commercial activities, including formal and informal coordination with these groups.

HandoverTrain handover stakeholders.Distribute documentation.Complete administrative and contractual tasksProvide interim support.Clean up postponed changes and issues.

End of Project Learning

Learning ActivitiesShould be:TimelyRelevantIn contextFiled and accessible

Why evaluate? 2005 Habitat for Humanity InternationalThe main objectives of program evaluations are:To inform decisions on operations, policy, or strategy related to ongoing or future program interventions To demonstrate accountability to decision-makers (i.e. donors).Shows a clear linkage between your design (using LogFrame) and your actual deliverables.

After Action ReviewReview the activity and its related objective or deliverable. For each one ask the following:

1. What did we set out to do?2. What did we achieve?3. What went really well? 4. What could have gone better? 5. What prevented us from doing more? 6. What can we learn from this?

Final EvaluationsConducted toward the end of the project.Largely judgment oriented determining overall merit, worth or value of a project.Generally include an external evaluator and require more planning and investment.

Ex-Post EvaluationsConducted at a defined period of time after project completion.Knowledge-oriented, emphasizing sustainable impact evaluationAre especially useful when advocating for interventions in a specific program or portfolio area.Not conducted as regularly as final evaluations.

External vs. Internal EvaluatorsExternalInternalDisadvantages Advantages

Provides a fresh look at the project and can draw from other project experiences Not personally involved, easier to be objective Is not part of the power and authority structure of the project Trained in evaluation methods and has wide experience planning and conducting other evaluations Better able to focus for longer periods of time on evaluation tasksHas in-depth understanding of the project and can interpret attitudes and behaviors of participants and stakeholdersMay lessen anxiety as he is well-known to project stakeholders and has established relationships Less expensiveMay have limited understanding of the project, and participants and stakeholders involved and therefore needs time to digest information on the projectMay cause more anxiety as he does not have an established relationship of trust with project stakeholdersMore expensiveMay be unwittingly constrained by attitudes such as We have always done it this way Personally and professionally involved, so harder to be objective Is part of the power and authority structure of the projectMay not be trained in evaluation methods and may have limited experience planning or conducting evaluationsMay have time constraints for evaluation due to other duties

CELEBRATE!Celebrate successful conclusionsRecognize closureAcknowledge social relationships

**Explanations and Optional Content:Read the slide.

The Executing Process Group identifies and acquires the project team who performs the work to produces deliverables required to achieve project goals.

Typically, project teams are accustomed to jumping right into project execution. However, it is important to remember that building a solid plan (foundation), will reduce inconsistencies during project execution and allows the project manager to focus on the actual work being performed.

Tightly linked with Monitoring and Control Worked in parallel.Execute monitors the activities on the project versus Monitoring and Control reviews data produced on the project.After Project Management Plan has been defined and approved, project execution starts.

Acknowledge that at the end of the time frame of development projects, organizations are generally faced with three options.

If the choice is to end, the Project Manager must begin the Closure phase. If the choice is made to extend or expand, the project cycle starts anew!

The Closure Phase is a particularly important process for the project manager working in a relief agency because the image and effectiveness of the relief organization will be determined by how it exits from a particular relief project. These Closing processes must clearly demonstrate the end of the project to all stakeholders, other relief organizations, private donors and the government. The high visibility of the start of relief operations must also be reflected in the clear denunciation of the end of the operation.

**Refer participants to Unit 5 pg 1 in participant binder.

Project closing is a process that if often shortchanged but is essential to complete project success. The project manager needs to ensure that tasks required for proper scope verification and stakeholder closure have been accomplished.

Administrative and contract closure are also essential to proper project closing . The project manager must also complete an analysis of lessons learned and project successes, and communicate these to the appropriate project stakeholders.

With pressures to move on to reassign team members and move on to new projects, the only practical way to accomplish closing is to include it in the project plan.

The project plan should specifically identify the various closing tasks; allocate costs to them; schedule them; and assign them resources. Include closing work in the WBS to make sure that you adequately allocate the time, money, and resources to do it.

If you plan for closing then it simply becomes part of your standard process for doing projects.

Closing is necessary not only for completed projects, but also for projects that do not end as planned. *Scope verification and stakeholder acceptance are two more instances where the WBS proves its value. Both efforts are intended to determine whether you did what you planned to do.

The first step is to sit down with your core project team and crosscheck work completed against the WBS. There may be, for example, work packages that were not on the critical path delayed early in the project and never performed later.

The second step is to sit down with your key stakeholders to:Review accomplishments against the project requirements, then get their acceptance documented by some kind of formal acknowledgement or acceptanceMake sure they are satisfied, not just with the technical aspects of the project, but also with the overall outcome. Keep in mind that the stakeholders expectations may have outgrown the scope of the project. These sort of last minute issues should be explored if appropriate.

***Logistics:

Explanations and Optional Content:Describe basic activities that occur during contract closure. Discuss examples of how this may occur in their individual project scenarios.

Examples may include:Contract closure: Accepting the deliverable of building supplies and formally closing that contract so that final payment can be made.Internal Closeout: Releasing and reassigning of agency personnel to other projects.External Closeout: Ensuring that all equipment is removed and relocated as needed and that the contractual obligations for use of that equipment is terminated and final payment is made.*As project manager, adhere to the technical requirements for closing out the project, including any requirements stipulated by the contract and/or your organization.

The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) identifies several key components of administrative closing, including:- Documenting project results to formalize acceptance of the product or service by the stakeholders- Collecting project records and ensuring they reflect final specifications- Analyzing project success, effectiveness, and lessons learned- Archiving information for future use

Keep in mind that organized archives are essential as people move on to new assignments.

Ask yourself, what would happen if the project were audited two years from now?

portfolios suggests that what is learned from an end of project learning will influence future decisions on projects, programs and portfolios; as well as the design and implementation of other projects.

**Lessons learned are the organizations memory bank. Ideally, you will track lessons learned as they occur, or at least at major evaluation points or milestones throughout the project.

Make sure that your lessons learned relate to the project, are provided in context to the scope of the project, are adequately detailed, and are filed and easily accessible.

Lastly, make sure that you distribute your lessons learned to those who can benefit from them.

If we dont do this, the organization ends up going back to square one every time we decide to pursue a similar project and waste a lot of time and effort in doing so.*Discussion:Are you evaluating your projects?In your experience, for which of the three bullet points above are evaluations completed in your context?How often are the findings of used to inform other project, program and portfolio decisions? 2. What accounts for the difference when evaluations are used for decision-making and when they are not? The discussion of projects, programs and Managers Planning Monitoring & Evaluation Toolkit By United Nations Population Fund Division for Oversight Services, 2004A learning review, also called an After Action Review, is a simple, quick and versatile learning tool that can be used to identify and record lessons and knowledge arising out of a project event.Learning reviews are also useful in emergency settingsparticularly in the early phase of a rapid-onset emergencysince they are relatively straightforward to organize and host. During the review, questions are asked that help participants understand what was planned versus what actually happened

What did we set out to do?2. What did we achieve? Focus on facts, not opinions.3. What went really well? Again, look at the facts. Why did it go well? Compare the plan to reality. Identify successes.4. What could have gone better? Compare the plan to reality. What prevented us from doing more? Identify challenges. 5. What can we learn from this? Make an action plan with specific recommendations and clearly assigned responsibilities to build on successes and resolve problems. Based on experience, what advice would we have for other teams? .

Choose an excellent facilitator to create a good learning review. Be brisktoo much thinking and discussion seems to confuse rather than clarify (i.e., the greatest value in learning reviews comes from what is foremost in ones mind). Be attuned to the politics. Most of the cases where a learning review has not been successful involved someone with power who did not like what was being said.

**A final evaluation is largely judgment-oriented and is conducted towards the end of a project.It aims to determine the overall merit, worth or value of a project.Because of this judgment orientation, final evaluations include an external evaluator and require more planning and investment. A final evaluation can also be knowledge-oriented because it provides lessons learned for future project design. In general, final evaluations do the following: provide information to project stakeholders on how the project has succeeded in achieving the SOsthe core purpose of the project; examine how MTE findings were addressedor not; review questions of relevance, effectiveness and efficiency (that a MTE also considers) with an additional focus on questions of impact and sustainability; make a judgment about whether the project was a good use of funds; and provide suggestions for follow-up programming, if requested.*An ex-post evaluation is knowledge-oriented and is sometimes called a sustainable impact evaluation. These evaluations study the impact of a project at a defined period of time after project completion.

Ex-post evaluations usually aim to determine which project interventions have been continued by project participants on their own. The findings may be used for advocacy efforts by showing donors the effectiveness of investing in a particular sectorfor example, the importance of supporting girls education within a food security program. An ex-post evaluation of a set of projects and their effectiveness may contribute to future program design. In Rwanda, for example, a number of peacebuilding projects were evaluated seven years after the genocide to inform CRS evolving approach to peace and justice program strategies.

CASE Study:In 2004, CRS/Ethiopia conducted an ex-post evaluation of a Development Assistance Program (DAP) I project. The evaluation was undertaken six months after the end of the project. Its purpose was to: Assess the sustainability of the benefits of DAP interventions that were phased out; and Generate lessons learned and share collective experiences gained from DAP I implementation. Methodology The evaluation was carried out over a period of one month, and a team visited the sites of four DAP partners. The evaluation team included staff from the CRS Country Program and their partners. The team reviewed DAP reports, conducted interviews with community members benefiting from DAP interventions, visited project sites, and held discussions with community members, government officials, and partners. Findings The evaluation found that a number of project services and benefits had continued. Cropland bunding and irrigation practices intended to improve crop production were still being applied and, in some cases, had effectively improved livelihood resilience during a subsequent drought. Trained traditional birth attendants had continued to provide services with high levels of enthusiasm and commitment, and increased levels of health care-seeking behaviors were noted. However, the ex-post evaluation also found a number of project benefits and services that had severely deteriorated. For example, nearly all water committees had dissolved, fee collection was irregular or had been discontinued, and many water schemes were not operational. Centrally managed nurseries had been abandoned. Lessons Learned CRS/Ethiopia and its partners learned that the DAP potable water strategy had over-focused on the technical aspects (hardware) while not paying enough attttention to the community organizing dimensions and support by existing government services (software). The strategy of centrally managed nurseries was a poor choice given the existing management capacity of communities and government. Even limited post-project follow-up by partners and government staff might have gone a long way towards mitigating the deterioration of project benefits and services. Implications The findings and lessons learned from this ex-post evaluation were used subsequently to inform the design of similar projects in Ethiopia. In addition, the evaluation was a valuable vehicle for raising awareness of these issues among partner staff. They learned much about the feasibility and effectiveness of their preferred strategies. *Dont forget to attend to people-oriented closing processes, including taking care of individual or personal issues, team issues, and public relations.

Your personal closing starts with documenting success, both for the projects benefit and your own. For example, you may want to keep letters of appreciation from the stakeholder and other awards or forms of recognition.

You will also need to address team closing issues. Celebrate the close of the project and recognize the efforts of your team members. In some cases, your organization may require you to prepare performance reports.

Finally, do a little PR and talk up your project within your organization and, as appropriate, in the outside world, to communicate your accomplishments and possibly garner new business in the future.