Making a Party out of Project Management: Chapter 9 - Wrapping Up the Project

Project Closure

Abby woke up late the next morning, catching up on some sleep after working so hard on the party and then going out with friends afterwards. She was really happy that everything went so well with the party and that Nathan had so much fun. And she was so appreciative of all the help everyone gave her – she never could have put it on by herself. Altogether, everything went great, from the idea of throwing the party, to planning it out, to doing all the work and making adjustments as needed along the way.

Now, Abby just had some loose ends to tie up this morning. First, Abby needed to close the project. She needed to review all her documentation for anything that needed an update before being archived into the organizational process assets as a reference for any parties she or others in the family might throw in the future. This included any final edits in her plans, updating data from execution of work or any adjustments made on the fly that hadn’t been recorded yet – all of this could provide helpful insight for a future project. The other matter for Abby to take care of was closing procurements. While she already paid for, used, and returned the rented party items and the bouncy castle service, she still needed to finalize all the costs and provide an online review for the vendor she used. Were they good enough that she would choose them again, or recommend them to a friend? Closing procurements and closing the project in general is about reviewing the project and confirming in writing that the project finished as it did.

To start reviewing and closing the project, Abby turned on her tablet and opened the folder where all the party project documentation was kept. Open watch items, like risks or stakeholders being regularly monitored, were closed. They didn’t need to be monitored anymore. Then, Abby performed a final round of project integration management to ensure she had updated all project documentation one last time.

Some of the work to close the project had been done just before the party started. For example, Abby showed her parents shortly before the party that everything was set up and ready to go, and they reviewed several specific deliverables one by one. Also, the start of the party represented the transition of the overall deliverable (the party) from development by the project team to use by the customers (Nathan and the party guests). So, the project was practically done yesterday, but the work of documenting final results and getting the project officially complete in writing is still very important for tying up any loose ends and making the documentation as useful as possible for future reference.

Reviewing documentation and results at the end of a project is also a good way to capture lessons learned that were discovered during the project. Abby thought through what she might want to do differently if she threw another party later; this could be avoiding a repeat of mistakes made during the projects or just realizing a better way to do something in the future.

There were still a few things to do for closing procurements. One thing was to have the park groundskeeper inspect the pavilion so that Abby could get her deposit back for that and return that money to the project sponsors. Then, as was mentioned in the explanation about planning cost management, she had to do an expense report by reviewing all the party costs on the debit card statement and verifying that they matched all the costs on her receipts, and that there weren’t any other charges. Abby added the pavilion inspection confirmation and her expense report to her collection of procurements documentation, which allowed her to mark the procurement checklist items complete.

After getting procurements totally closed, Abby’s next step was to finalize the other costs to figure out the grand total actual cost of the project. She could compare this to her original estimate to tell if she overspent on the project or if it came in on budget. Abby added up the cost of the food for the party, the decorations, vendor help, and the money she spent on gift cards for her friends to give them for their help with setting up the party. There was only one variance to her originally approved budget, and that was the approved change request to buy the extra-large chocolate bar for Nathan. Like all the other documentation, the costs that the project budget paid for were included in the project documentation archives. Now Abby had a full set of OPAs she could review for the next party she would want to host!

Once she had all of that done, Abby had finally finished her project! The party was over, and it was a big success. Everything was wrapped up and there was nothing left to do. Abby was now ready to use all she had learned on this project for planning any future parties that she might want to host or help with later. Hopefully now, you as the reader have a good idea of what project management is about and whether or not you might like to investigate it further as a possible career for yourself. If so, check out the following for what to do next!

Next post in the series: Making a Party out of Project Management: Epilogue - Getting Started in a Project Management Career