Closing a Project

• Purpose
• Objective
• Context
• Activities
  • Overview
  • Prepare planned closure
  • Prepare premature closure
  • Hand over products
  • Evaluate the project
  • Recommend project closure

Key sections

• Introduction
• Business case
• Organization
• Quality
• Plans
• Risk
• Change
• Progress
• Introduction to processes
• Starting up a projectDirecting a project
• Initiating a project
• Controlling a stage
• Managing Product Delivery
• Managing a Stage Boundary
• Closing a Project
• Tailoring PRINCE2 to the project environment
• Directing Projects with PRINCE2

Activities

Evaluate the project

Successful organizations learn from their experiences with projects.
When evaluating the project, the objective is to assess how successful or unsuccessful the project has been.

It may also be possible to improve the estimation for future projects by analysing the estimates and actual progress metrics for this project.

Diagram 1 shows the inputs to, and outputs from, this activity.

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Diagram 1

PRINCE2® recommends the following actions:

• Review the project’s original intent as agreed in the initiation stage and defined by the Project Initiation Documentation baselined at that time
• Review the approved changes as defined by the current version of the components of the Project Initiation Documentation
• In consultation with the project management team, prepare an End Project Report to include:
• The Project Manager’s summary of how the project performed
• An assessment of the results of the project against the expected benefits in the Business Case
• A review of how the project performed against its planned targets and tolerances
• A review of team performance
• A review of the project’s products (which should include a summary of any follow-on action recommendations)
• If necessary, the documented reasons why a project was brought to a premature close
• In consultation with the project management team, prepare a Lessons Report for lessons that could be applied to future projects and seek the Project Board’s approval to send it to corporate or programme management. The report should include:
• A review of what went well, what went badly and any recommendations for corporate or programme management consideration - and in particular, the project management method, any specialist methods used, project strategies and controls, and abnormal events causing deviations
• A review of useful measurements such as: how much effort was required to create the products; how effective was the Quality Management Strategy in designing, developing and delivering fit-for-purpose products (for example, how many errors were found after products had passed quality inspections); and statistics on issues and risks
• Any useful knowledge gained regarding the tailoring of PRINCE2 for the particular project environment

Diagram 2 shows the responsibilities for this activity.

© Crown copyright 2005 Reproduced under licence from OGC

Diagram 2

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.