Closing the Project

Towards the end of a software implementation, the project team is often very busy. Final activities must be completed, results documented, and the handover to the business organized. Therefore, systematically evaluating the performance of the project team often gets neglected. However, capturing lessons learned at the project closure is well-invested time. This also applies to change management. Identifying areas for improvement in the setup and delivery of change management enables the development of mitigation activities and enhances the handling of people-related challenges for subsequent rollout waves or future projects. At the same time, it is important to also explore the existing strengths. These should be maintained or even expanded, if possible. Overall, capturing lessons learned for change management contributes to the organization’s capabilities to successfully handle future business transformations.

Sandra and Paul plan to capture lessons learned from the change management support for wave 1 of the 4S project. They have scheduled a call to discuss how to proceed.

There are many options to design the process of capturing lessons learned. Do you know which approach is suitable?

Take five minutes to complete exercise 39 in your workbook.

Sandra and Paul discuss the best approach for capturing lessons learned in change management for the 4S project and determining which topics to address.

After a successful go-live, the overall focus is on the new solution and processes. The project team is busy resolving issues and providing user support as they approach the end of their responsibilities. Project team members begin returning to their workplace in the organization or move on to other endeavors. This dynamic can lead to a project fading out rather than being properly closed. Celebrating the project success emphasizes the achievements of the project team and, at the same time, highlights that this phase is now coming to an end. This enhances the awareness of a proper handover to the business, which is then in charge of operating the new system. Additionally, showing appreciation for the achievement motivates the project team members to become actively engaged in the next project phase or in a future project.

Sandra and Paul have initiated some activities to acknowledge the success of the first go-live and to officially communicate that wave 1 of the 4S project is complete:

• Shortly after go-live, Jane Brisco sent an e-mail to all project team members thanking them for their contribution. The managers of the project team members were copied to the distribution list.
• Another e-mail was sent by Lucy Sheng thanking the change agents for their valuable support, with their managers also copied on the message.
• A video with testimonials from different users, representing the various impacted user groups, will be posted in the 4S project section of the corporate intranet.
• Furthermore, Sandra and Paul organized some funding for local get-together meetings, allowing the project leads to invite the team members.
• Additionally, they scheduled a virtual meeting for the entire team to wrap up the first wave. The agenda includes brief speeches from the project leads, an outlook on wave 2, and a short video featuring statements from key project team members.

Sandra and Paul decided to create the video in an interview format. They decided to ask three questions. Each of the participating project team members had to answer one question. What do you think? Which questions might be suitable for such a video format?

Take five minutes to complete exercise 40 in your workbook.

The following video was first used in the wrap-up call and then uploaded to the shared drive of the 4S project.

To inform all employees about the successful go-live and to create motivation for the upcoming waves, Sandra and Paul also recorded a video statement with Jane Brisco. This activity completes the change management activities around the closure of wave 1.