• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Entry Software Corporation

Entry Software Corporation

Entry

  • About Us
    • Contact us
    • Our Story
    • Message from the CEO
    • Customer Quotes and Case Studies
    • Press Releases
  • TeamHeadquarters
    • Overview
    • Value Proposition
    • Help Desk
    • Project Management
    • Resource Management
    • Team Resource Management
    • My Company
    • My Organizations
    • Videos
  • Pricing
    • Cloud Pricing
    • On Premise Pricing
    • Services
  • Industries
    • Transportation
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Manufacturing
    • Municipalities
    • Service Business
  • Get a Demo

Project Completion Criteria: How do you Know You are Done

June 12, 2017 by Mark Donais

Completing the project
Project managers reviewing the project completion criteria with the project sponsor

This probably sounds like a strange question in the hopefully very organized world of project management, but it really isn’t all that strange. How do you know when your project engagement has come to an end? What is your project completion critera?

Is it when all tasks in the project schedule show that they are 100% complete? Is it when all customer sign-offs are safely tucked away in a project folder? Is it when the end solution has been deployed? Is it when your PMO Director says you’re done and assigns you to another project? (Don’t laugh…saw this happen once but that’s for another article.)

All of these – except for that last one – could logically be answered ‘yes.’ But they can also be answered ‘no.’ There is no perfect ‘right’ answer actually because each of these could still be followed and something could have fallen through the cracks. Knowing when we’re actually done with the project may vary a bit depending on the project, the customer, and possibly some stipulations agreed to during kickoff. To best ensure that the project is basically ‘complete’, follow these four steps…

Review the project schedule for completeness

For starters, look over the project schedule. Are all tasks showing as 100% complete? Without all tasks documented as complete in the project schedule – which should serve as the go-to resource on assigned project tasks that make up all things that were to be completed on the project – then we can never even begin to think of the project as ‘finished.’

Confirm with the project team

We certainly want to make sure that from a documented standpoint, all project work is complete. But we also want to make sure that we haven’t missed something that was discussed along the way. What if a project team member promised a task or document to the customer a couple of months ago. Since customer satisfaction is always of utmost importance, we want to make sure that any promises, documented or undocumented have been followed up on. Of course if its something significant, you’ll want to first check with the customer and confirm they need it and want to pay for it it’s out of scope. But always include this step – it may end up uncovering something that was important to the project or customer.

Discuss with the customer

Next, interview the project customer and make sure that they, too, consider the project work to be complete. Go through the project invoices with them or prior to this conversation to make sure all invoices are paid. Any outstanding invoices should be addressed with the customer at this time to ensure there is no reason that payment is being withheld.

Obtain customer signoff

Finally, the last step is to obtain a formal project acceptance or sign off from the customer. The other steps are really to help ensure that the customer is happy with the solution and that all stakeholders feel that the necessary project work has been completed. However, this official sign off really trumps everything else and is a necessary final piece to the project closure puzzle.

Summary

We can certainly make the project closure process a very rigid, structured process…and that’s fine. A good project checklist is always a great idea. However, by also following these steps you should really be able to ensure that nothing has fallen through the cracks and that the project is, indeed, complete. See how this project management tool can help you.

Filed Under: Project Clarification, Project Management Tagged With: project closed

About Mark Donais

Primary Sidebar

TEAMHEADQUARTERS OVERVIEW

TEAMHEADQUARTERS EXPLAINER VIDEO

Recent Posts

  • Understanding Service Level Agreements (SLA)
  • Improving Customer Service
  • Remote Project Management
  • What does it take to be an IT Manager?
  • Tips for Managing IT Team Effectively

Recent Comments

  1. What Are Common Problems In Scheduling Housekeeping Staff? – Fallsgardencafe on Proper use of Project Milestones in the Field of Project Management

Archives

  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2019
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017

Categories

  • Agile
  • Audiences
  • Business
  • Capacity Planning
  • Case Study
  • Change Management
  • Client Management
  • Client Services
  • Cloud Based
  • Content strategy
  • Customer Service
  • Customer Tracking
  • Education
  • Facilities Management
  • Help Desk
  • Help Desk and Project Management Software
  • Help Desk Software
  • IT Help Desk
  • IT Managers
  • IT Strategy
  • IT Work Management
  • ITIL
  • ITIL Service Desk
  • ITSM
  • Leadership
  • Milestones
  • Multiple Projects
  • Never ending project
  • Operations Management
  • Prioritize Projects
  • Project Clarification
  • project delays
  • Project Management
  • Project Management Engagement
  • Project Management Software
  • Project Management Tools
  • Project Manager Communication
  • Project Negotiation
  • Projects Collision
  • Resource Management
  • SaaS
  • Schedule Management
  • Service Desk
  • Service Level Agreement
  • Small Business
  • Software
  • Strategy
  • Ticketing System
  • Time Management
  • Uncategorized
  • Work Management Software
  • Working Efficiently

Footer

Blog
Login to TeamHeadquarters™
Team Headquarters Help

Brochures & News

TeamHeadquarters™ brochure
Customer testimonials
Press Releases

Legal and Site

Privacy Policy

Free eBooks & Tools

  • IT Managers Guidebook to Implementing ITSM
  • The Essentials of Project Communication Success
  • Tracking Project Status Throughout the Engagement
  • ITSM Readiness Assessment
  • Challenges Facing IT Leaders when working with Disparate Systems
  • Customer Satisfaction Survey Best Practices

Entry Software Corporation

Founded in 1998, Entry Software Corporation has been leading the industry with service desk and project management software for manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, municipalities, service organizations, and education.

Entry Software Corporation © 1998 to 2022

 

Entry Software Corporation © 1998 to 2022