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1. The key to success is to use checklists
— lots of checklists. If you have read this column over the
years, then you already understand this. When planning the other
phases of the project, there is usually some logical sequence to
completing the tasks. Most of this disappears during the final 10
percent. Your focus should now shift to crossing off items on
various checklists until none remain.
2. Don’t allow anyone to work on any item that is not
on the checklist. This is extremely important. People will
always find something more interesting to do than close out
punch-list items. These distractions waste the budget and do
nothing to complete the project. Insist on frequent meetings,
sometimes several times a day, to keep the focus on closeout.
3. Build your firm’s intellectual capital through
“lessons learned.” At the end of each project,
collect the lessons learned by the project team and work them into
improving the firm’s processes. Perform the project completion
analysis and document what went well and what did not. Be a
learning organization — don’t repeat past mistakes.
4. Make every effort to safeguard the project
records. If trying to find the back-up calculation for a
certain structure is difficult when the project is in the design
phase, it’s impossible five years later! Leaving all your
project records in file cabinets until someone else needs the
cabinets is not records management.
5. Don’t forget to ask for a referral from your
client. Make sure this is a routine event at the closeout
of every project. Get the referral on the client’s official
letterhead, signed by the most senior manager possible. Remember,
you can always say you did something, but having it in writing from
your client is proof you did.
6. Plan your project completion party at the start of the
project. Successful project teams start by planning for
success, then they execute the plan. If the project schedule
indicates the completion party as a separate milestone, the team is
looking forward to success. Make sure you allocate budget to make
it happen.
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