Source: Image of thumbs up, female project manager, male project sponsor, Creative Commons, Kelly Eddington; Image of schedule, budget, Creative Commons, Jeff Carroll; Image of checkmark,underline, images by Video Scribe, License held by Jeff Carroll.
Hi, I'm Jeff, and in this lesson, we'll discuss how to obtain approval for the third phase of the project life cycle, the stage when all work is completed.
It's the project manager's responsibility to determine when all deliverables have been generated and when they are ready for review and approval by the stakeholders. All deliverables must meet the performance and quality expectations outlined in the project scope. If they don't, additional work will need to be scheduled to bring the deliverables up to the required standard. If the deliverables are ready, then the project manager prepares for the phase three approval.
The project manager should schedule a meeting with the project sponsor and with any key stakeholders who have signed off authority for the project. The goal of the meeting will be to gain approval to move on to the next phase. As you might recall from a previous lesson, the approval to move on from a phase is called a gate.
The project manager prepares the following information for the approval meeting, the requirements and the deliverables specifications from the project scope are reviewed to demonstrate that all have been satisfied. The schedule is reviewed to show that all tasks are 100% complete. The schedule should be compared to the project baseline, and the project manager should explain any areas where the actual schedule deviated from the planned schedule.
The budget is reviewed. The project manager should note whether the project came in over or under budget and how it compares to the project baseline. They should also note how much, if any, of the budget reserve was used.
And the project manager describes the process that will be used to transfer the deliverables into an operational state. This transition will officially close the project. And that's how a project manager finishes up the work for phase three. Excellent job! In this lesson, we learned the process a project manager uses to gain approval for phase three of a project. Thanks, and have a great day.