Source: Image of calendar, Creative Commons, Kelly Eddington; Image of stethoscope, ruler, document, dollar sign, arrows, bar graph, images by Video Scribe, License held by Jeff Carroll.
Hi, I'm Jeff, and in this lesson, we'll learn how a project manager evaluates and reports on a project's success. So let's get started. One step during the closing process is the creation of any final reports for the project. These reports are compiled by the project manager with the help of those that have the knowledge and data to create them. And the details in these reports are guided by organizational standards and the project governance.
The project manager must document the project completely before the project can be considered officially closed. During phase three, managing the project, the schedule and the budget were monitored and managed. During that time, new baselines may have been established due to change requests, or perhaps the baseline from the project scoping phase was maintained throughout the project. In either case, during the closing process the current schedule and budget are compared to the current baseline, and reports on any deviations from the baseline are documented.
Final calculations are also conducted during phase four, including performance statistics on tasks and any reports on the quality of the deliverables and how the requirements were met by the results of the project. The project manager then compiles all of these reports in preparation for the phase four approval meeting, which we will discuss in another lesson. The reports will not be considered final until the phase four approvals have been received, since edits might be required on the materials.
The details in these reports allow the project manager and the audience for the reports to evaluate the project as a whole. This is accomplished by specifically evaluating the following. How well did the deliverables meet the requirements and the scope? Were all deliverables created to satisfaction? And did the deliverables meet the quality standards outlined in the scope?
Were there any schedule overruns? If the answer is yes, what caused the overruns, and how could these overruns be avoided by future projects? Were there any budget overruns? Again, what caused the overruns, and how could they be avoided in the future?
It's also worth noting if the schedule or the budget was unrealistic so that future projects might plan their time and their cost more accurately. With these evaluations fully compiled by the project manager, one more step in a project's closing process has been completed. Nicely done. In this lesson, we learned how a project manager compiles the final reports and how a project's success is evaluated. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
