Summary

When the project is completed and closed down, as a member of the governance team your role and responsibilities continue to ensure the progressive, tracked and measured delivery of the business value (that the project was set up to deliver in the first place). So, this final guide in the governing value/project delivery process series goes beyond the end of the project to also focus on the subsequent value realization steps.

To avoid value loss at this final stage of the process, this Guide is required by all on the governance team.

This ‘closure and beyond’ stage is primarily focused on the implementation, delivery and realization of the value — the business outcomes and benefits.

One of the great temptations at this stage is to close off the project too soon and forget to pursue the subsequent benefits. Whoosh! (That’s the sound of the available value disappearing fast!!!)

At this stage as a member of the governance team you need to ensure that all of the energy, focus and funds committed to date are translated into delivered business outcomes, benefits and maximized value. And to maintain your focus and energy until you can reasonably show the overall initiative has achieved its goals.

But this is not easy. It involves implementing change both during and after the project. It involves measuring the actual value achieved and taking remedial action where required. It involves ‘herding cats’ in terms of maintaining business staff commitment to realizing the goals even after the project has long since closed down and lost visibility.

This “How to govern project closure and beyond” Guide enables you to focus on the key steps and ensure your project moves from just ‘completed’ to become ‘successful’ — one of the 5% of projects that deliver their benefits in full.

Benefits

This Guide

1. repositions project governance to focus on the post-project stage as well so as to ensure the maximum value is realized
2. ensures appropriate accountability for the realization of the value is put in place and monitored
3. enables you to ensure you track and measure benefits realization realistically, adjusting for factors beyond your control
4. ensures you don’t close down your project before you’ve delivered what is required to realize the value (and don’t throw away vast value at the last moment for the sake of a few dollars!)

The difference between success and failure at this stage is dependent on your persistence and focus.

Who should read

This Guide is designed to be read primarily by all those in project governance roles (Sponsor/Steering Committee) but the Guide is also useful for key Stakeholders, the PMO and Auditors to understand what should happen at the governance level at each stage of the project.

Contents

1. Understanding the end-to-end value delivery process
2. Understanding your closure roles and accountabilities
3. Understanding the challenges of project finalization
4. The end-to-end project closure (and beyond) governance process
5. How to govern change
6. How to govern organizational change plans
7. How to govern the business value
8. How to measure your project’s value
9. How to ensure the benefits are sustained
10. How to authorize your project’s closedown
11. How to capture your project’s lessons
12. How to track outcomes, benefits and value post-project
13. How to measure your project’s success
14. How to finalize your involvement (project closure report).

In addition, we also provide you with some additional supporting tools and resources to make use of this Guide easy and effective.

Bonus

Change readiness checklist
A simple checklist to assess, from a governance viewpoint, whether it is safe to implement the solution (and system if relevant). You need to know what criteria to consider

Project closure readiness checklist
A simple checklist to assess whether you can close down your project with putting at risk the delivery of the still-to-be-realized value. Far too many projects are closed down too soon, destroying the opportunity to realize some of the available value