During the whirlwind of a project it can be hard to imagine your world when it is over. But planning for “life after project” is critical for winding down the spending, taking full ownership of project outcomes, and ensuring a soft landing for participating staff. In this post we will look at how to plan for life after the project. We will look at how to transform the project infrastructure – systems, people, process, tools – into operations that will fulfill the transformation.

Project Oversight Becomes Systems Oversight

A well-run project requires strong governance structures to oversee the change. A project team is brought together to run the day-to-day activities. An advisory committee of subject matter experts weighs in on new processes, use of data and expectations for the front line staff. An Executive or Steering Committee focuses strategic input and resolves cross-department challenges while ensuring the project has sufficient time and resources to succeed. A project becomes a microcosm which directly experiences the disruptive forces of change before the rest of the organization.

A functioning project team is an extremely valuable element of the “life after project” plan. We find organizations gain more if they can shift this team into an ongoing role, taking ownership of future phases and managing releases or continuous enhancements. Today’s technology is constantly changing, and when the project is over, the change agents of your project team might be your greatest asset.

At the halfway point in the project, we recommend a larger conversation about human resources. That conversation should answer the following questions:

• What will happen to each dedicated member of the project team? For example, a full-time project manager may transition into an operations role, move on to another project or leave the organization all together.
• How will the organization continue to leverage expertise developed on the project? An Advisory Committee of subject matter experts meeting monthly during the project is a group worth retaining for monthly oversight of systems once live.
• Who will ultimately own the system at the executive level and how will their peers engage in decision-making? A steering or executive committee may have been chaired by one executive tasked with seeing the project through, but then hand off to a different executive. Retaining the committee governance structure can help facilitate long-term cross-departmental cooperation.

Testing Tools Transition to Issue Tracking

Requirements tracking, testing and resource management tools from the project can be re-purposed for post-project life. The tools themselves likely contain critical information that will feed into post-project issue resolution queues. With modest reconfiguration, we can utilize these tools for ongoing support ticket management.

Methodology Transforms to Service Delivery

Evaluating your project methodology can tell you a lot about your organization. It provides a baseline for how long it takes to make decision, how testing might occur, and how to engage stakeholders. The evaluation can point to an effective service delivery approach based on the project methodology. It can also help you formulate a plan for managing the system moving forward.

We often see successful transitions from a larger, one-time project to periodic release plan (ex. Quarterly Releases or Trimester Release). The one-time project has a set path, moving from planning to design, to building and testing, to deployment and then to support. This same path can be applied to future releases, scaled down for the few weeks spent in each stage, rather than the months needed for each step of the original project.

Partners Continue or Conclude

Many projects require vendor assistance. Many of those projects live in a time-and-materials world where a vendor’s continued involvement is tied to hourly billing rates. A well-managed project defines either the continuation or conclusion of partner involvement long before the end of the project.

Many of the post-project roles were defined with the original procurement. Application providers may include support agreements and may even have introduced support resources that will inherit the completed project. Managed services providers may be involved in configuration and testing, with an eye towards service delivery when the main project is finished.

For those partners who have planned post-project roles, we recommend the following:

• Check early assumptions throughout the project. Projects can shift dramatically from early scoping to conclusion. Incrementally re-orienting support or managed services within the project is greatly preferable to having to fully re-imagine roles following the project go-live.
• Ensure support resource participation in key testing and training activities. Supporting resources will face a learning curve similar to that of your internal team. Involving the post-project resources in the project will help provide context for life after project. They will understand why the project turned out the way it did, and can help highlight those issues that crop up during the project that will need their attention later.

For those partners whose roles will conclude with the project we recommend:

• Set a final billable date. This might be a line in the sand, but it is better to have a line drawn that moves than not have one at all. Well before that date your conversations should have pivoted to knowledge transfer and off-boarding resources. Once that date arrives, it should represent a final marker, allowing you to close out that contract.
• Confirm resource off-boarding plans. Profitability for professional services firms is largely tied to efficiency. Ideally, your project ends on one day and on the next firm resources move to a new project. Unfortunately, what usually happens is sought-after resources transition sooner and either juggle multiple projects, placing pressure on all of them, or are replaced by junior resources. We recommend having resource off-boarding conversations well in advance of project close to help ensure a smooth transition for both vendor and client.
• Formally end contracts. You need not fire your vendors at the end of a successful project. But you should have clear closure and memorialize that closure in writing. Let it be known that upon receipt and confirmation the formal arrangement between vendor and client is complete and clearly state the day after which no additional billing or expenses should occur.

Summary & Conclusions

Your goal should be a clean transition from project completion to life after project. Projects have a way of going from 100 mph to 0 mph in a matter of days. Planning with that end in mind can help ensure your project can fully transition into post-project mode – and steady, predictable vendor budgets.

When we think about projects we typically measure outcomes directly tied to project objectives. Greater outcomes can be realized if your organization takes the effective teaming, decision-making and methodology forward with you. Your whole organization will have a much better chance of embracing outcomes, and imagining your life after project as a place you want to be.