Why Project Closeouts Matter (Part 1)

  Integration Management  

What can project closeouts do for you? In a nutshell, you should:

• Discover what stakeholders and team members think. Ask them to list the things that worked and things that can be done differently.
• Define the root causes. Separate issues from ownership, and hone in to ascertain root causes on internal variables.
• Communicate commitment. To share knowledge on what works well, and signal commitment to fix the pain points through suitable interventions.

The strategy of repeatable project closeouts is to prepare the organization for continuous improvement by addressing and acting on stakeholder expectations and feedback. There is value to IT teams in terms of better service delivery, increased credibility, acceptance levels and customer satisfaction. It is probably the only phase of a project, where all stakeholders will have an equal opportunity to weigh in with their inputs and feedback--so why not make the best use of it?

Project closeouts are also effective for driving ongoing enhancement of enterprise-wide capabilities through a participative, timely, data driven process. Organizations should expect to see cost savings and/or operational efficiencies brought about by interventions to eliminate problems and root causes surfaced through the closeout process.

I believe that successful project closeouts are best done …

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