Completion and Post-Implementation Audit

When all stages are completed to the satisfaction and agreement of all parties, it is important that the project be recognized as complete. At this stage, it is crucial that the project manager document the following before starting another project:

Job descriptions for operations staff.

Job descriptions for systems staff.

Working practices for operations and systems teams agreed on by management, operations manager, and systems manager.

Rolling plan for update, upgrade, and replacement of equipment over the next two to five years.

A plan to ensure that all documentation is complete and signed off.

A plan to ensure that all contractors, subcontractors, and self are paid up-to-date.

A postimplementation audit date for three to six months after project close-down.

In the postimplementation audit (PIA), the project manager returns a few months after responsibility for the new system has been assumed by the client (i.e., steady state). The actual audit procedures should be determined initially, indicating that a team will return to see whether the system is working as designed. Most of this audit consists of ensuring that the project team is adhering to established working practices. It is quite surprising how people misinterpret documented procedures and invent ways around problems. These issues of documentation standards are beyond the scope of this book. The PIA has rarely been carried out in the past and is only now gaining a reputation for its usefulness.

Roles and Responsibilities on a Project Life Cycle

Table 2.2 reveals typical roles and responsibilities that one would encounter on a project. The larger the project, the more roles and responsibilities would be added.

Table 2.2: Roles and responsibilities on the project life cycle

Likes and Dislikes of Project Methodologies

Often, one person may give a project manager the best kudos and praise for adopting a certain project methodology, but too often, the kudos arise mainly from the ranks of the management layer. Methodologies are like an onion just when you peel off one layer, you discover another layer waiting for you. Some of the pros and cons seen by managers and nonmanagers working on projects are listed in Table 2.3.

Table 2.3: What managers and nonmanagers think of methodologies

Blueprints for Business Innovation

Because the introduction of a project management methodology and its processes possibly needs to be integrated into the existing business processes, it becomes necessary to stop to look at what we need to take care of before simply designing a methodology. Business process reengineering focuses on optimizing existing processes and facilitates the redesign of these processes if they are outdated and superfluous to departments or units, they do not meet clients needs, or they are causing long delays for meeting organizational strategy.

Look at how Dell Computers is able to reconfigure its production lines for flexible, more rapid market demands. They adapt more quickly than their competitors and apply great methodologies for their solutions. Look at how Walt Disney has moved beyond the realm of its theme parks by having its own line of cruise ships and entertainment all innovative by design reflecting that Disney is able to transcend the norm.

In Table 2.4, note that in any organization today, there are existing processes that directly interface with the aims and objectives of what many project managers are trying to do throughout the course of a projects life cycle. Remember that project management is about managing the triple constraints, which are (1) cost, (2) time, and (3) quality. Its not that simple for project or development managers to simply ignore existing processes to get their jobs done. The methodology should be tightly and seamlessly integrated into the existing processes, so much that they complement one another.

Table 2.4: Examples of processes in organizations