Free Essay Sample on Project Closure

Project closure is the conclusion and declaration of the success of a project. It is done in a meeting involving the project sponsor, customer, and stakeholders. The end-user had to confirm that they are well satisfied with objectives of the project.

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The consequences of lack of project closure are that the team may not identify if the project goals were achieved. It is because there will be no communication with the end-users to give feedback on the results of the project. They will not communicate if they are satisfied with the results or in a case of change requests may be involved. Due to lack of communication, if the project objectives were achieved, the project sponsors may not be satisfied with the project planning, therefore, affecting future funding. Project closure also helps to account for the budget and in the case of a surplus, it may be used in change requests. Lack of project closure will lead to a poor accounting of surplus budget (Cooke, 2005)

A good example is the of University of Baltimore and Office of Technology Services project

It was a project to help in installation of technology services in the university to help with future projects. Evaluation of the project was done by the partners and the Office of Technology services to identify the feasibility of the project. It was then taken to the next step where the project was done and applied. They did not have a project closure this led to disturbances during the first semester of application. There was no end-user confirmation on the results of the project and therefore no feedback to use as an affirmation to the project sponsors who were the university board (University of Baltimore, 2016).

An example of the University of Virginia and an IT firm in Virginia project

The project was to install proper wireless access points in the college premises and appropriate emergency phones in the school. The evaluation was done by the project sponsors and the project team to see the viability of the project. They then went ahead with the project, but there was not project closure. The funds were in surplus but due to no closure, there was no proper accountability of funds. It led to the project sponsors disappointment and therefore other university projects were put on a hold (University of Virginia, 2016).

The University of Baltimore and Office of Technology services project was sponsored by the University board. Their aim was to ensure that the university was well supplied with technological facilities to help with the future project. The evaluation was done, and the project was considered feasible. The project then began and was estimated a duration of one year. At the end of the project, a meeting was held to identify lessons learnt from the project (University of Baltimore, 2016). A questionnaire was issued to the project sponsors, customers and stakeholders. It involved a scale to determine their perspective on the importance of the project team, monitoring and customer involvement. It also required them to state three of the lessons they learnt from the project. They outline that it is important to have a proper time frame to help with the planning of the project execution. Moreover, it is also important to have a well-defined budget to help know the surplus that may be used in case of change requests and monitoring helps in keeping the project in line according to the budget and timeline.

Reference

Cooke, C.R (2005). Just Enough Project Management 45(7) 23-30.

University of Virginia.(2016).Virginia.edu. Retrieved 19 April 2016, from http://www.virginia.edu/cio/itpm/pmguidelines.html

Project Closure.(2016). Mastering-project-management.com. Retrieved 19 April 2016, from http://www.mastering-project-management.com/project-closure.html

University of Baltimore.(2016). Ubalt.edu. Retrieved 19 April 2016, from http://www.ubalt.edu/about-ub/offices-and-services/technology-services/services/project-management