4 Reasons Why the Last 2% of a Project Take Forever to Complete
“Begin with the end in mind” and “It ain’t over until it’s over” are two expressions that highlight the importance of closing a project out and crossing the finish line. It’s your job as a project manager to make sure that deliverables, activities, and processes are in place to ensure a project’s graceful and successful end. But why is it so difficult to bring projects to closure? There are a number of reasons why this is the case:
The Devil is in the Details
When a project begins, most people are excited about the prospect of increasing revenue, decreasing cost, helping with sales and marketing, or getting paid by a client. The big picture is exciting and everyone is anxious and ready to go. Once the project has sloughed on for a couple of months, however, and everyone has begun to be stretched uncomfortably, the project becomes a grind. Unanswered questions and decisions that need to be made pile up, requiring meetings, time, and bandwidth, and have a tendency to keep project closure at bay.
Requirements Change
Depending upon the duration of the project, requirements that were put into place at the beginning of the project may have changed. This could be due to a host of reasons ranging from legal considerations to a change in plans. You should count on these changes occurring as they happen on nearly every project. Plan for requirements to change and make sure everyone knows that closure activities related to the project will be extended.
People Change
I’ve heard one horror story after another about how someone initiated a project and then that person left the company or moved on to another department. They were then replaced with a brand new person who had a very different worldview, and more importantly, view of the project. “We’re not doing it that way anymore” is the first thing out of their mouth. You will definitely need to know how to plan a project for closure when the new sheriff comes to town.
Clients May Be Extremely Picky
Clients come in all shapes and sizes. Some are great to get along with, easy-going, flexible and just focus on the big picture. Then, there are those clients that are fastidious, demanding, persnickety, and finicky. They come with a punchlist of items an inch thick to close the project out, which certainly presents a challenge when it comes to wrapping a project up, and more importantly, getting paid.
Great, we all understand the problems, but what can we do to close the project out? Our next post, How to Plan a Project for Closure, will discuss three ways this can be done.
