UNIVERSITY OF MALAWI

THE POLYTECHNIC

FACULTY OF COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTANCY

BAC3W COURSE ASSIGNMENT

COURSE: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

COURSE CODE: FIN-323

SUBMITTED BY: HLUPEKIRE NYIRONGO

REGISTRATION #: BAC/18/ME/016

SUBMITTED TO: PROF KANKHOMBA

DATE: 2ND MARCH, 2020

FROM: THE CONSULTANT, HLUPEKIRE NYIRONGO

DATE : 28 FEBRUARY, 2020

SUBJECT: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ACTIVITIES TO BE CARRIED OUT AT THE CLOSURE

The project manager has decided to write this report to address all project team
members the need to take certain activities as the project draws to close.

The objective of this report is to discuss about the importance of the project close out and
post-completion of the project. The project manager noted that some of the activities in
the past finished project which he worked as a project team were not dealt with
effectively of which there was no feedback, no discussion on project performance and
outcomes just to mention a few.

Firstly, Project management consists of five process groups, namely initiating, planning,
execution, monitoring and control, and closing. The project closure phase is the last
process group in project management. According to A Guide To The Project
Management Body( PMBOK Guide) The project closing process group consist of those
processes performed to conclude all activities across all Project Management Process
groups to formally complete the project, phase or contractual obligations. This process
group , when completed verifies that the defined processes are completed within all of the
process groups to close the project, as appropriate, and formally establishes that the
project phase is complete.

There are two main activity groups that happens in project close out and these are
Administrative Closure and Contract Closure.

a. ADMINISTRATIVE CLOSURE

The administrative closure process defines activities, interactions and related roles and
responsibilities of the project team members and other stakeholders involved in executing
the administrative closure procedure for the projects. Performing the administrative
closure process include integrated activities to collect project records, analyze project
success or failure, gather lessons learned, transfer the project products or services to
production and /or operations and archive project information for future use by the
organization.
 b. COTRACT CLOSURE

Contract closure includes activities and interactions needed to settle and close any
contract agreement established for the project, as well as those related to supporting the
formal administrative closure of the project. Contract closure involves verification that all
work has been completed correctly and satisfactorily, updating of contract records to
reflect final results and archiving information for future use. Among other activities
contract closure includes: confirming the project has addressed the terms and conditions
of the contract, confirming completion of exit criteria for contract closure and formally
closing out all contracts associated with the completed project. Project close-out should
be anticipated and planned as early as possible in the project lifecycle even though it is
the last major process of the project’s life.

The concluding actions in this phase will usually include the approval and transfer of the
project deliverables to the user or customer. It is important that all actions that are
included in the closing group are performed thoroughly, since only then will a project be
considered as closed. The essence of this group is that all the stakeholders agree that the
project has met its assigned objectives, and additional charges will not be assigned to the
project. Furthermore, the staff and other resources can be assigned to other projects or
relieved if not required. There are numerous important activities that are performed at the
project closure phase.

1. ACCEPTANCE OF DELIVERABLES

This is the most important action that is taken during the project closure phase. The
project deliverables are reviewed by the customer according to the agreed acceptance
criteria and formally accepted. The acceptance criteria relate to the functional capability
of the project deliverables and are essentially a contract according to which a project is
executed. The project is formally complete when it has been successfully implemented
and transitioned to the performing organization and approved by the project sponsor.it is
very important to assess how closely the project met customer needs, highlight what
worked well, learn from mistakes made during the project, identify patterns and trends,
derive ways to improve upon processes executed throughout the project and most
importantly communicate the results.

2. SOLICIT FEEDBACK AND UPDATE SKILLS

The most important measure of the success of a project are whether the product was
developed and delivered successfully and how the needs of the customers have been met.
During the course of the project, project team members most likely enhanced their
current skills or obtain new ones. The investment made in improving an individual’s
skills should not be lost. In order to leverage skills on future projects and facilitate and
encounter individual growth the project manager needs to maintain a record of the skills
developed and used on the project. The team leader must also need to document their
feedback on the accomplishments and performance of each project team member.
Independent of how experienced the project team might be, in every project there are
lessons learned and processes that might be improved. Capturing project lessons can lead
to creation of experience database from which further project teams will be able to learn
and use it for multiple purposes.

3. UPDATE AND ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS

A collection of all related materials, documents produced, decisions made, issues raised
and correspondence exchanged providing the history and evolution of the project must be
archived for future reference. These documents are extremely useful when planning and
executing future projects and act as a template. Efforts undertaken during the project in
preparing the project plans and other documents are beneficially utilizes for future
projects and thus repetition is avoided.

4. PROJECT REPORT

The project report is also one of the most important task to be done at the project closure
phase. A project report is completed and submitted to the project sponsor. The document
essentially includes the project summary, starting from initiation till closure. The
significant topics that are included in this report are the project purpose, objectives, plans,
schedule and a comparison of the initial baseline schedule and the actual schedule.
Details are provided regarding the changes incorporated, processes tailored and their
effects on the project. Financial aspects are important to be included in this report, the
post execution examination is an assessment of the project’s effectiveness and its
preparedness for future projects.

In conclusion, all projects reach an end, either the objectives being achieved as planned,
or the project being terminated since the project may now not be viable. In either case,
the project closure phase is an important element of the project activities and needs to be
completed with deliberate efforts. Projects are intended to create a precise exclusive
result and on achieving this outcome, the end is reached and culminates in the project
closure. After the completion of the post project review may emphasize issues that should
be concentrated in the forthcoming projects. In some project environments, the projects
occur rapidly at a fast pace and thus a project flows swiftly into another project. In such
circumstances, it is important to remember that the project closure phase has to be
completed with full effort. The planning and execution of the subsequent projects will
become simpler by the conduct of the proper project closure phase of the preceding
projects.