Month: December 2021

Project Closure is overlooked during the project. To many, successful project delivery is defined by the completion of deliverables as per the objectives of time and cost. Many practitioners consider the process of project closing as an overburden, a process that has minimal significance and scope, and also believe it is only done to satisfy organizational requirements. But, many practitioners don’t realize that the “Closing a Project” Process is as impactful and significant as the initiation, planning, executing, and monitoring, and controlling processes.

Project Closing is the combination of the following aspects when applied to a project:

• Assuring that all the work has been completed,
• Ensuring that all agreed project management processes have been executed,
• Formally recognizing that the project is completed upon everyone’s approval.

Steps to Closing a Project

The close of the project is the final phase of your job, it’s the last turn of the project life cycle, and like any other aspect of a project, it requires a process. The following are five steps you should take to make sure you’ve dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s, as well as taken full advantage of the experience.

1. Arrange a Post Mortem

Managing a project isn’t only about tasks and resources, budget and deadlines, it’s an experience you can constantly learn from. While you should have been learning throughout the project, now is a great time to look back without the pressure and distractions that might have dulled your focus.

Gather the core team to invite feedback about what worked, and what didn’t. Encourage honesty. By documenting the mistakes and the successes of the project, you’re building a catalog that offers historic data. You can go back and look over the information for precedents when planning for new projects.

Projects are never standalone things, but part of a continuum, where the specifics might vary, but the general methods usually remain the same. There’s a wealth of knowledge produced after any project closes.

2. Complete Paperwork

As noted, projects generate reams of documents. These documents are going to have to get sign off and approval from stakeholders. Everything needs attention and must be signed for, which is the legal proof that in fact these documents have concluded. That includes closing all contracts you might have made with internal partners or vendors or any other resources you contracted with.

This includes addressing all outstanding payments. You want to make sure that all invoices, commissions, fees, bonus, what have you, are paid. Complete all the costs involved with the project. It’s not done if it’s not paid for.

Project management software can help you organize all these documents. ProjectManager acts like a hub for all your project files. You can track them on our list view, which is more than the usual to-do list app. For one thing, you can see the percentage complete for each item on the list.

3. Release Resources

You assemble a team for the project, and now you must cut them loose. It’s a formal process, and a crucial one, which frees them for the next project. Each team is brought together for the mix of skills and experience they bring to a project. The project determines the team members you’ll want to work with, and each project is going to be a little bit different, which will be reflected in the team hired to execute it.

This is true for internal as well as external resources. The external ones might be more obvious, as you contracted with them, and that contract is going to have a duration. When it’s over, make sure they’re all paid in full so they can sign off and leave. But internal resources remain, so you have to remind yourself that their time on the project is also limited, and you might be blocking other team’s projects if you don’t release your resources once the project is done.

4. Archive Documents

There are lessons to be learned from old projects, which is why you meet with your team regularly during the project and look back on the process afterwards. However, if you don’t have an archive in which to pull the old records, then whatever knowledge you gain is lost because of poor organization and management. You worked hard to have great project documentation, don’t lose it.

Before you close a project, archive all the documents and any notes and data that could prove useful. Even if you never access it, there’s a need to keep a paper trail of the work done on any project for other people in the organization. This might include legal teams, or HR teams, or even your successor. You never know when someone might have to go back and respond to a question or want to learn how an old issue was resolved. Consider it like putting away provisions for the winter.

5. Celebrate Success

If it sounds silly to you, then you’re not doing your job. There’s nothing silly about rewarding your team to acknowledge a job well done. It creates closure, which is what this part of the project is all about, but it also plants a seed that will bloom in later projects when you work with members of the old team.

That’s because when you note a job well done you’re building morale. It makes team members feel better. You might have been a hard taskmaster in the project, but you give them their due for a job well done. That creates loyalty, and they’re going to work even harder for you the next time. And there will be the next time, because a happy team is a team that you retain. Why would you want to close a project and lose the very resources that made it a success? Loosen up!

Project Closure Checklist

To make sure that every i is dotted and t crossed, follow this step-by-step project closure checklist.

• Start at the beginning with the project scope document you created and make sure that you’ve met all the requirements listed there.
• Make sure that all deliverables have been handed off and signed by stakeholders, getting their approval and satisfaction. Keeping track of all those deliverables can be confusing unless you’re using project management software. Project Manager has a board view that gives you transparency into the process so you can see that everything has been handed off. Customizable columns allow you to add sign-off as a step to make sure stakeholders have approved the deliverable.
• Other project documents must also be signed by the appropriate person, this includes any outstanding contracts and agreements with vendors and other contractors.
• Once documents are signed off on, then process them and pay off all invoices and close out any project-related contracts.
• Add all documents together, including finalizing all project reports, then organize and archive them as historical data to be used for future reference.
• Use collected paperwork to identify and document the lessons learned over the course of the project, including any feedback from stakeholders, so you don’t make the same mistakes in future projects.
• Assign a transition support person to shepherd the project after completion so that the project closure is thorough.
• Release or reassign the project resources, which includes your team and other project personnel and any equipment or site rentals used for the project.
• If you’ve not used a project management software, get one, as it helps control not only the life cycle of the project but also the process of closing the project thoroughly.
• Finally, but perhaps most importantly, celebrate with your project team. They did the work and deserve credit and an opportunity to blow off steam until the next project is started.

Importance of Project Closing Process

If a project is not closed correctly, the project management team along with their efforts, time, and credibility may be negatively perceived for matters that are not their fault or responsibility. Hence, just as Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring, and Controlling processes, Project closing serves an essential purpose for the organization and helps it avoid unfavorable and adverse scenarios.

Modern project management is a well-understood discipline that can produce predictable, repeatable results. The methodologies of modern project management are highly analytical, usually requiring automated tools to support them on large projects. Like most other disciplines, it is learned through both practice and past experience. Project management encompasses many different skills, such as understanding the interdependencies among people, technologies, budgets, and expectations; planning the project to maximise productivity; motivating others to execute the plan; analysing the actual results; and reworking and tuning the plan to deal with the realities of what really happens as the project is executed. In order to manage a project and bring it to a successful completion, its project manager must have a complete understanding of the methodologies being used for the management of different parts of the project. Managers prefer specific project methodology, while resist and face difficulties for an opportunity to manage another project with different methodology as they do not know how much commonality exists between the preferred and the new required methodology. This paper discusses the issues involved in modern project management and compares the differences between traditional and modern project management skills and techniques.

Four Periods in the Development of Modern Project Management

Prior to 1958: Craft system to human relations. During this time, the evolution of technology, such as, automobiles and telecommunications shortened the project schedule. For instance, automobiles allowed effective resource allocation and mobility, whilst the telecommunication system increased the speed of communication. Furthermore, the job specification which later became the basis of developing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) was widely used and Henry Gantt invented the Gantt chart. Examples of projects undertaken during this period as supported by documented evidence include:

(a) Building the Pacific Railroad in 1850s.

(b) Construction of the Hoover Dam in 1931-1936, that employed approximately 5,200 workers and is still one of the highest gravity dams in the U.S. generating about four billion kilowatt hours a year.

(c) The Manhattan Project in 1942-1945 that was the pioneer research and development project for producing the atomic bomb, involving 125,000 workers and costing nearly $2 billion.

1958-1979: Application of Management Science. Significant technology advancement took place between 1958 and 1979, such as, the first automatic plain-paper copier by Xerox in 1959. Between 1956 and 1958 several core project management tools including CPM and PERT were introduced. However, this period was characterised by the rapid development of computer technology. The progression from the mainframe to the mini-computer in the 1970s made computers affordable to medium size companies. In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. Furthermore, the evolution of computer technology facilitated the emergence of several project management software companies, including, Artemis (1977), Oracle (1977), and Scitor Corporation (1979). In the 1970s other project management tools such as Material Requirements Planning (MRP) were also introduced.

Examples of projects undertaken during this period and which influenced the development of modem project management as we know it today include: (a) Polaris missile project initiated in 1956 that had the objective of delivering nuclear missiles carried by submarines, known as Fleet Ballistic Missile for the U.S Navy. The project successfully launched its first Polaris missile in 1961; (b) Apollo project initiated in 1960 with the objective of sending man to the moon; and (c) E.I du Pont de Nemours chemical plant project commencing in 1958, that had the objective of building major chemical production plants across the U.S.

1980-1994: Production Centre Human Resources. The 1980s and 1990s are characterised by the revolutionary development in the information management sector with the introduction of the personal computer (PC) and associated computer communications networking facilities. This development resulted in having low cost multitasking PCs that had high efficiency in managing and controlling complex project schedules. During this period low cost project management software for PCs became widely available that made project management techniques more easily accessible.

Examples of major projects undertaken during this period that illustrate the application of high technology, and project management tools and practices include:

(a) England France Channel project, 1989 to1991. This project was an international project that involved two governments, several financial institutions, engineering construction companies, and other various organisations from the two countries. The language, use of standard metrics, and other communication differences needed to be closely coordinated.

(b) Space Shuttle Challenger project, 1983 to 1986. The disaster of the Challenger space shuttle focused attention on risk management, group dynamics, and quality management.

(c) XV Calgary Winter Olympic of 1988, which successfully applied project management practices to event management.

1995-Present: Creating a New Environment. This period is dominated by the developments related to the Internet that changed dramatically business practices in the mid 1990s. The Internet has provided fast, interactive, and customised new medium that allows people to browse, purchase, and track products and services online instantly. This has resulted in making firms more productive, more efficient, and more client oriented. Furthermore, many of today’s project management software have an Internet connectivity feature. This allows automatic uploading of data so that anyone around the globe with a standard browser can:

(a) Input the most recent status of their assigned tasks.

(b) Find out how the overall project is doing.

(c) Be informed of any delays or advances in the schedule.

(d) Stay “in the loop” for their project role, while working independently at a remote site.

An example of a major project undertaken during this period is the Year 2000 (Y2K) project. The Y2K Project, known as the millennium bug referred to the problem that computers may not function correctly on January 1st, 2000 at 12 AM. This was a global phenomenon and was highly problematic because resolving the problem at one’s organisation did not guarantee immunity, since a breakdown in the organisation’s supply chain could affect the organisation’s operating capability. Many organisations set up a project office to control and comply with their stakeholders regarding the Y2K issue. Furthermore, use of the Internet was common practice that led to the establishment of the virtual project office. The goal of this virtual project office was:

(a) To deliver uninterrupted turn-of-the-century

(b) Monitor Y2K project efforts.

(c) Provide coordination

(d) Develop a risk management plan.

(e) Communicate Y2K compliance efforts with various stakeholders.

Thus, the virtual project office was a focal point for all the project works, and it increased the awareness and importance of risk management practices to numerous organisations.

Project termination is one of the most serious decisions a project management team and its control board have to take. It causes frustration for those stakeholders who sincerely believed and in most cases still believe that the project could produce the results they expected, or still expect. The project manager and his or her team members, very important stakeholders of the project as well, will feel that they personally failed. They also will be scared of negative consequences for their careers; their motivation and consequently, productivity will decrease significantly.

Reason for Termination:

• Technical reasons
• Requirements or specifications of the project result are not clear or unrealistic
• Requirements or specifications change fundamentally so that the underlying contract cannot be changed accordingly
• Lack of project planning, especially risk management
• The intended result or product of the project becomes obsolete, is not any longer needed
• Adequate human resources, tools, or material are not available
• The project profit becomes significantly lower than expected, due to too high project cost or too low project revenue
• The parent organization does not longer exist
• The parent organization changes its strategy, and the project does not support the new strategy
• Force majeure (e.g. earthquake, flooding, etc.)
• Necessary conditions disappear
• Lack of management support
• Lack of customer support

To Avoid:

• A clearly communicated strategy of the organization.
• Clearly communicated reasons why and how the project supports that strategy, and under what conditions it does not.
• Clearly set and communicated project success criteria (in terms of scope, schedule, and budget), if possible, clearly set and communicated termination criteria.
• High level management attention, even for smaller projects, and even then, when everything still seems to be on track.
• Periodical review meetings with the control board.
• Open discussions with the control board about problems and possible solutions or alternatives, including termination.
• In case the project has to be terminated, a clear commitment of the control board and high-level management towards the project management team in order to enable the team to follow the project closure procedures.
• Upon successful termination, similar rewards and incentives for the project manager and his or her team as with regular project closure.

Reasons for Termination of Projects

Your competitors are doing a better job

As a project manager, you may be motivated to prove your mettle and take your company ahead in the market, but think logically and determine if it is possible. Many a times, you may be motivated at the start of the project but once you begin with it and have to face grave challenges one after another, the positive drive may fizzle out and you may be left with a project that is going nowhere. Even if you realize it midway on the project, do not hesitate to pull the plug.

Expensive or does not meet company’s goal

Make an estimate of the total cost of the project in the planning stage itself. A few thousand dollars here and there are manageable, but when you see the figure going way over your approximate value, it is better to put an end to the project right in the initiation stage. Also, if the project does not go well with the strategic plan of the company, it should not be given the green signal.

Project gets out of control

When operations get way beyond control or when damages cannot be repaired anymore, you know it is time to terminate the project.

Failure in testing process

It is sad to see a project fail during testing. However, if the team members gave it all that they could and the project still could not succeed, putting an end to the project is a sensible choice rather than spending twice the energy and resources on it again.

Important or priority project comes up

Businesses take up several projects simultaneously. However, there are some projects which need more time, energy and resources. If a certain project is stopping you from allocating the required resources in a bigger, important project, it is better to let go of the smaller project.

Process for Terminating Projects

Confirm work is done as per the requirements

Once the project is closing, all deliverables of the project must have been completed and delivered to the customer. You should also take formal acceptance of the customer for the completed work.

Complete procurement closure

Since the project is closing, you should complete any remaining payments that need to be made to the suppliers or partners. The procurement steps are also completed.

Gain formal acceptance

Formal acceptance of the project and project deliverables are taken from the customer. Usually, the customer presents a written document, it can be an email or a signed off document, which states that the project has been completed and they accept the outputs of the project.

Complete final performance reporting

The final performance of the project is calculated and recorded. These include cost performance, schedule performance, quality performance etc. For instance, whether the project has been completed under budget or if it could not be completed, how much did the project exceeded the planned budget?

Index and archive records

Collected documents are finalized. Final versions of the project management plans and all necessary documents about the project are archived in the company records.

Update lessons learned

Lessons learned is collected and gathered from all stakeholders. Lessons learned documentation is stored in the organizational process assets of the company.

Hand-off completed product

Once the project is completed, the product of the project is handed over for the use of the end customer. The handover may need a predetermined period of assistance or some documents describing how to use or how to operate with the product.

Release the resources

After the project is completed successfully, all assignments of the project resources are closed, lessons learned inputs from the project resources are collected and then these resources are released respectively.

As you see, the project closure is also as important as the other phases, so you must take these activities into consideration for better outcomes in your next projects.

Project auditing can be defined as the process of detailed inspection of the management of a project, its methodology, its techniques, its procedures, its documents, its properties, its budgets, its expenses and its level of completion.

A project audit is a key step in the process of closing a project. This audit evaluates the total project processes and outcomes. In this chapter we discussed the purpose of evaluation and the various measurement parameters used in a project audit. We also discussed the life-cycle of a project audit.

The life cycle of an audit contains six phases: audit initiation, project baseline definition, establishing a database, preliminary project analysis, preparing final report and terminating the project.

Major Goals of an Audit

1. The caliber of services and products are ensured

A project audit functions as a good guarantee application. It evaluates the task living cycle analyzing the outcomes yielded throughout the various phase, out of the look stage to setup.

When going over the style stage, a project audit reviews the concepts of the design, which includes the evaluation of alternate styles.

Also, it’s evaluated if the answer is prepared for the pilot check and lastly, throughout the setup evaluation, the review assesses as well as confirms the setup in every site in which the item is followed.

The classification of the errors over the method plays a role in the declaration of the issues and also to comprehend whether the task ought to go on by way of a go/no-go choice at every point.

2. Task management quality check

A project audit determines if the project management fulfills the requirements by evaluating whether or not it is fully compliant together with the organization’s policies, procedures, and processes. It further reviews the strategy utilized to simply help determine spaces to be able to expose the necessary enhancements.

3. Company risk identification

Audits help to identify the risk factors due to the company policy which may impact the quality, environment, time, and budget.

The review further assesses the feasibility of the task of the terminology of performance and affordability by offering transparency as well as evaluating resources, time, and costs.

4. Performance improvement

Keeping track of different phases of the Project Management Life Cycle can help the enhancement of the team’s efficiency.

The review additionally enables you to boost your finances as well as source allocation. Determining goals, preventive actions and corrective measures can result in an optimistic task result.

The troubleshooting procedure enables the team to offer answers and also aids in preventing problems that may recur down the road.

5. Learning

One can learn from experience with the help of the audit process as well as from the feedback obtained. Thus, the team can contemplate their very own performance.

Types of Project Audit in Project Management

Undertaking an audit isn’t the very best of occasions for any PM without having a clear overview of the numerous kinds of audits listed in the PMBOK.

Normal Audit

This is called even simply’ an audit’ which is an element of Monitoring as well as the Controlling method team. It’s additionally called Inspection as it’s essentially a QC operation. Assessment is completed after the item is built.

Quality Audit

This is included in the execution procedure and is a critical review of the project. They find out whether the team follows the business’s process.

Risk Audit

These audits are included in the Monitoring as well as the Controlling team. These assist with total procedure advancement. Here you can additionally audit as well as evaluate the usefulness of the project risk management process as a whole.

Procurement Audit

The procurement Audit is an element of the Closing procedure team. As a component of procurements closure, an organized general comment flushes away concerns, sets up instructions mastered, ensures troubles are solved for succeeding tasks as well as identifies positive results as well as problems which justify transfer to various other procurements.

Audit policies and activation procedures

In order to achieve the benefits expected from a project audit, each stage, element and outcome of the audit process must be clearly set out and openly disclosed, including:

Audit mission statement: This document should clearly define the purposes, objectives, authority and limits of the audit operation, as well as the type of audits to be conducted.

Specification of audit competencies: A detailed specification of the auditor’s skills and experience, showing that the audit staff possess adequate expertise to audit the project.

Roles and responsibilities of the actors involved: A detailed statement of all the roles and responsibilities covered by the audit, both for the person conducting the audit and for the project team; including the project manager, team members, project sponsors, clients and any stakeholder.

‘Trigger’ audit criteria: A complete list of all the criteria on the basis of which projects will be selected for an audit. It would be too costly and time-consuming and would defeat the purpose of the audit process itself. Thus, specific criteria should be established to identify projects to be audited on the basis of risk, complexity, internal value, costs, etc.

Audit start procedures: A description of the procedures for the initiation of the audit, including the process by which individual project managers are informed of an outstanding audit and the related preparation requirements.

Audit execution procedures: A list of audit procedures that cover the methods to be used during the audit. This varies according to the type and timing of each audit, but may include personal interviews with project staff, document reviews, questionnaires and more.

Audit reporting procedures: A specification of the audit reporting procedures, which covers how and the way in which the audit results will be reported and reviewed. In order to minimize the threatening nature of the project audit, all parties should be fully aware of how the results will be disclosed and used within the organization.

Audit redress procedures: A specification of all procedures to be followed to appeal and/or dispute the reported audit results.

Project Life Cycle

Initiation

First, you need to identify a business need, problem, or opportunity and brainstorm ways that your team can meet this need, solve this problem, or seize this opportunity. During this step, you figure out an objective for your project, determine whether the project is feasible, and identify the major deliverables for the project.

Project management steps for the initiation phase

• Undertaking a feasibility study: Identify the primary problem your project will solve and whether your project will deliver a solution to that problem.
• Identifying scope: Define the depth and breadth of the project.
• Identifying deliverables: Define the product or service to provide.
• Identifying project stakeholders: Figure out whom the project affects and what their needs may be.
• Developing a business case: Use the above criteria to compare the potential costs and benefits for the project to determine if it moves forward.
• Developing a statement of work: Document the project’s objectives, scope, and deliverables that you have identified previously as a working agreement between the project owner and those working on the project.

Planning

Once the project is approved to move forward based on your business case, statement of work, or project initiation document, you move into the planning phase.

During this phase of the project management life cycle, you break down the larger project into smaller tasks, build your team, and prepare a schedule for the completion of assignments. Create smaller goals within the larger project, making sure each is achievable within the time frame. Smaller goals should have a high potential for success.

• Creating a project plan: Identify the project timeline, including the phases of the project, the tasks to be performed, and possible constraints
• Creating workflow diagrams: Visualize your processes using swimlanes to make sure team members clearly understand their role in a project
• Estimating budget and creating a financial plan: Use cost estimates to determine how much to spend on the project to get the maximum return on investment
• Gathering resources: Build your functional team from internal and external talent pools while making sure everyone has the necessary tools (software, hardware, etc.) to complete their tasks
• Anticipating risks and potential quality roadblocks: Identify issues that may cause your project to stall while planning to mitigate those risks and maintain the project’s quality and timeline.
• Holding a project kickoff meeting: Bring your team on board and outline the project so they can quickly get to work.

Execution

You’ve received business approval, developed a plan, and built your team. Now it’s time to get to work. The execution phase turns your plan into action. The project manager’s job in this phase of the project management life cycle is to keep work on track, organize team members, manage timelines, and make sure the work is done according to the original plan.

Project management steps for the execution phase

• Creating tasks and organizing workflows: Assign granular aspects of the projects to the appropriate team members, making sure team members are not overworked.
• Briefing team members on tasks: Explain tasks to team members, providing necessary guidance on how they should be completed, and organizing process-related training if necessary.
• Communicating with team members, clients, and upper management: Provide updates to project stakeholders at all levels.
• Monitoring quality of work: Ensure that team members are meeting their time and quality goals for tasks.
• Managing budget: Monitor spending and keeping the project on track in terms of assets and resources.

Closure

Once your team has completed work on a project, you enter the closure phase. In the closure phase, you provide final deliverables, release project resources, and determine the success of the project. Just because the major project work is over, that doesn’t mean the project manager’s job is done there are still important things to do, including evaluating what did and did not work with the project.

Project management steps for the closure phase

• Analyzing project performance: Determine whether the project’s goals were met (tasks completed, on time and on budget) and the initial problem solved using a prepared checklist.
• Analyzing team performance: Evaluate how team members performed, including whether they met their goals along with timeliness and quality of work
• Documenting project closure: Make sure that all aspects of the project are completed with no loose ends remaining and providing reports to key stakeholders
• Conducting post-implementation reviews: Conduct a final analysis of the project, taking into account lessons learned for similar projects in the future
• Accounting for used and unused budget: Allocate remaining resources for future projects

In the mid-1980’s, the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University published a framework intended to help the government assess which software contractors would be best capable of delivering complex software projects. This Capability Maturity Model was based on an assessment of the standard practices a company maintained while working on software projects. The model has since been adapted to fit a broad range of industries and functions, and there are a number of maturity models that have been developed over the years. One of these, the Project Management Maturity Model, closely aligns with the original model, but focuses specifically on the assessment of project management capabilities.

The Five PMMM Levels

There are five levels in the PMMM that reflect increasingly sophisticated organizational behaviors. In order to determine the level a company operates under; it’s evaluated across a number of key areas of project management practice. The PMMM can be viewed as a continuum of behaviors rather than as a rigid scale, as most companies will typically find areas in which they do well and others where there’s room for improvement.

Typical areas of assessment will be the management of risk, scope, schedule, resource, quality, and overall project integration. The full list of key assessment areas will depend on who’s doing the actual assessment. In some cases, the type of industry the company being evaluated is involved with will determine what additional factors are measured.

The five levels used in the PMMM as proposed by the Project Management Institute are labelled Initial Process, Structured Process and Standards, Organizational Standards and Institutional Process, Managed Process, and Optimizing Process. Let’s explore what these signify.

Level 1: Initial Process

The Initial level reflects a company that operates in a relatively random manner. Since there’s very little control, it’s hard to predict how the organization will react, particularly when faced with a crisis situation. While success on projects is possible, a company stuck in the Initial level is unlikely to be able to reproduce success on a consistent basis.

Level 2: Structured Process and Standards

Companies operating in the Structured level will adhere to some basic project management practices, but often only at an individual project level. Overall project success is likely to depend on key individuals or specific management support rather than on adoption of broad standards throughout the organization. While better than a random or ad-hoc situation, organizations operating at Level 2 are still often viewed as being reactive in nature.

Level 3: Organizational Standards

As it’s name suggests, the Organizational level indicates that well-defined project management procedures are documented and used as a standard of operations. Because these procedures are defined at an organizational level, they’re more likely to be well understood and backed by management. The organization is generally seen to act proactively, not reactively.

Level 4: Managed

The Managed level reflects an organization that measures project performance using well-defined metrics. Standards are agreed to across the organization, and common metrics are used to manage business decisions and processes.

Level 5: Optimizing

A company that focuses on deliberate and continual process improvement can be said to be operating in the Optimizing level. Companies at this level will seek to continuously improve their project management performance, often using innovative techniques not seen at other organizations.

Advantages of Project Management Maturity Model:

• It consists decisive and organized steps to evolve various management planning.
• This model is certainly flexible and broad to implement in any type of organizational structure.
• This model is thoroughly easy and effective to implement and understand in real life practice.

Limitations of Kerzner Project Management Maturity Model:

• It is generic model which can be limitation for complex projects and also not useful in complex strategic management.
• Maturity level planning is considerably late in the model hence it is impair to guide organization in several critical directions.
• Project maturity model is very helpful in basic strategic policy planning hence it is not useful in directive and overall organization policy planning.

After the project is commenced the next step is to ensure that the project gets completed by achieving the desired objectives. But sometimes things go wrong when we try to implement them.

So it becomes very important to control and monitor the projects especially in the implementation stage. Another reason for this control is the amount of cost involved with the projects.

So one way of doing this is the control of in-progress projects. Therefore, it refers to the assessment and monitoring of the projects which are currently in progress. It helps to implement any changes to be done at an early stage so that if something goes wrong it can be treated well in time.

There are two aspects of control of in-progress projects:

• Establishing procedures for internal control: it refers to setting up certain procedures through which we can keep control of the ongoing project internally. It may be done through assigning a dedicated supervisor for this or can be done by investing in technology related to this.
• Regular progress reports: regular progress reports may be maintained so as to judge the daily progress of the project. This progress report can also be used to track the planned performance with the actual performance. This will help the company know about areas where we may be lacking.

Post-Completion Audit

Even after the project is completed it is so important to audit the project. The main aim is to compare the actual performance with the planned performance or we can say that to know whether the project has produced desired results or not.

If the results are desired, we aim to look for things which performed well and is there any scope for improvement or not and if the results are not desired then we may aim to find out the shortcomings due to which the project suffered and how can we improve them.

Post-completion audits also help a business find out what were the biases that we made in our judgements. We will also be able to include healthy caution.

It will also help us to determine who were the best performers who put in extra efforts to make the project success and we will also be able to serve this audit as a training ground for potential executives.

Abandonment Analysis

Project management is certainly a very dynamic process. Anything can happen in this fast-changing dynamic world. Here is where abandonment analysis comes into the picture.

Abandonment analysis is a technique which is used for existing projects and even for new projects that whether the existing project terminated or is to be continued.

The rules to consider are:

If PVCF<SV<DV then it is highly advised to divest the project because the divestiture value is highest in the case and makes the most sense to divest.

If PVCF<DV<SV then the project must be terminated because the SV value is highest and we will get the most benefit by terminating the project.

If SV<PVCF<DV then we should divest the project because at this stage we are getting the most value by divesting the project.

If SV<DV<PVCF then we should continue with the project because we will get the most benefit by continuing the project.

If DV<SV<PVCF then in this we should continue with the project as both DV and SV are lower than PVCF.

If DV<PVCF<SV then we must terminate the project because neither divesting nor continuing the project will help.

Some problems are small and can be resolved quickly. Other problems are large and may require significant time and effort to solve. These larger problems are often tackled by turning them into formal projects.

This approach defines five problem solving steps you can use for most problems.

• Define the Problem
• Determine the Causes
• Generate Ideas
• Select the Best Solution
• Take Action

Define the Problem

The most important of the problem solving steps is to define the problem correctly. The way you define the problem will determine how you attempt to solve it.

If you define the problem as poor performance by the team member you will develop different solutions than if you define the problem as poor expectation setting with the client.

Determine the Causes

Once you have defined the problem, you are ready to dig deeper and start to determine what is causing it.  You can use a fishbone diagram to help you perform a cause-and-effect analysis.

If you consider the problem as a gap between where you are now and where you want to be, the causes of the problem are the obstacles that are preventing you from closing that gap immediately.

This level of analysis is important to make sure your solutions address the actual causes of the problem instead of the symptoms of the problem. If your solution fixes a symptom instead of an actual cause, the problem is likely to reoccur since it was never truly solved.

Generate Ideas

Once the hard work of defining the problem and determining its causes has been completed, it’s time to get creative and develop possible solutions to the problem.

Two great problem solving methods you can use for coming up with solutions are brainstorming and mind mapping.

Select the Best Solution

After you come up with several ideas that can solve the problem, one problem solving technique you can use to decide which one is the best solution to your problem is a simple trade-off analysis.

To perform the trade-off analysis, define the critical criteria for the problem that you can use to evaluate how each solution compares to each other. The evaluation can be done using a simple matrix. The highest ranking solution will be your best solution for this problem.

Take Action

Once you’ve determined which solution you will implement, it’s time to take action. If the solution involves several actions or requires action from others, it is a good idea to create an action plan and treat it as a mini-project.

Using this simple five-step approach can increase the effectiveness of your problem solving skills.

Techniques:

Gantt chart

A Gantt chart helps you visualize the project schedule. It’s a bar chart you can use to understand the various relationships between correlating activities and study their current statuses.

This project management tool can be custom-made to suit your personal preferences and to adequately advise you on how to deal with specific projects. Software versions allow you to manage activities within your defined plan and measure them against time constraints.

This will enable you to create a yardstick to measure the performance of each subtask or primary task within your project, helping you realize existing problems with a mere glance over the progress report. If any assignment is taking longer than expected, it shows that you need to put your attention toward that particular task, or you may be required to redirect more resources to meet with predefined objectives.

Ishikawa diagram

Also known as a fishbone diagram, this is a fundamental technique used by project managers to identify the reasons behind any defects, failures, and unsolicited variations. By showing cause and effect, the Ishikawa diagram can help you design better products and prevent potential factors from bringing about mistakes and shortcomings within your project.

Many software developers and companies use the Ishikawa diagram to perform software testing. Project managers also use it to deal with concerns such as low developer velocity as well as slow resource procurement. This tool is quite adaptable in its basic form and theory, which enables you to use it in many ways.

Root cause analysis

A simple yet powerful process for practical problem solving, root cause analysis is a four-step methodology to identify project troubles. This tool is used to distinguish the root cause from other causal factors so that corrective actions can be determined and taken. By knowing the root cause of a fault or problem, you can choose the most practical solution that meets your specific requirements.

This also helps you get out in front of problems. For example, the goal of incident management is to resume a faulty IT service as soon as possible (being reactive); by addressing an outage’s root causes, you can solve the problem for good (being proactive).