The PMI standards specify that a project is not completely finished until the close project process is completed. In the formal sense, this is the correct procedure. Unfortunately, real life projects are sometimes somewhat different. There may be unintended issues that prolong the implementation of the project. Stakeholders may insist that additional features must be delivered with the current project. These adjustments to standard project close out are generally costly, time consuming and wrong.
If you are faced with pressure from stakeholders to keep a project active when you know that it should be wrapped up, you can still salvage the situation. The final closing process should be completed. A summary document should be created. The contractors should be released from the project. If the project is over, but is being extended unnaturally, the standard close process can still be performed. The project manager has the responsibility to formally close the project. All activity or influence to extend the project can be declared to be part of either another phase of the project or of an operational exercise.
Some organizations assemble project teams and find that the level of productivity is greater than other staff groups. Such a team may find that their project is extended merely because the organization is taking advantage of the team’s ability to complete work. There may be a need for such productivity and it certainly can save the organization money. Still, such extended project work violates the original project plan. While there can be advantages gained by keeping the team together, good practice would insist that proper credit should be given to the team. This would include the ability to close out completed projects when appropriate. Future work by the team could be assigned to new projects, to operational work or even to additional phases of the first project.
Project managers should always remember the PMI standards that specify proper project lifecycles. This includes project close out. A project must end or it cannot rightly be called a project. In order to keep order in a team, there may be value in performing the close project process even if the exercise is somewhat internal to the project team. The ideal situation occurs when all stakeholders agree that a project is finished, but project managers must sometimes implement closure themselves.
© 2011 Vaughn Smith, PCMP