Closing A Successful Project: It's Time For Team CELEBRATION ! !

[#1]

THE UNICORN 🦄🏆

Well it has happened... you might not believe it.... I myself am quite in shock, but:

I am closing a 100% SUCCESSFUL project.

Yes, that's right.... the ultra-platinum-unicorn of all project types: A truly successful one!  Happy client & team, in budget, on time, issues managed, risks mitigated.

Job well and truly DONE!

MY HAPPIEST MOMENT IN JIRA EVER 🥇😍

Just a moment ago I wrote the following in my PM Jira task as I closed the final Sprint:

But naturally it wasn't easy!

It took crazy amount of TEAM WORK! Of course we had issues to manage (like my only 3D Designer sick and doing her best from home) and risks to mitigate (like the client not understanding "Spartan" UI half-way through the project and throwing us a curve ball) and moments when we really could have killed each other ("team" work) - but hey, we made it!

And so here I stand.... proud and elated that I could update my JIRA task with such a GANSTA comment! (Yes, that's right... the English private school white boy version of that word...!)

To be able to write that in JIRA, with such confidence and poise is really really magical! I mean, don't get me wrong! I've had successful projects over time... it's just never been on THIS level before, where every aspect of the project scores a perfect 10 out of 10!

CLOSING LIKE A PRO 🧐🤘

So now it's time for Project Close and my absolute favourite way to do this, is to follow the guidance of one of my favourite PM professionals of all time, Elizabeth Harrin:

https://www.girlsguidetopm.com/how-to-close-a-project/ 

Let's see how I'm following this guidance from an Atlassian perspective, step-by-step.... ("Ooh Baby!")

[Did I get THAT SONG stuck in your head now.....!? GOOD!!)]

01 - Handover to users

The application with it's version release notes (from Jira Release) has been distributed to the End Users, the UAT sign-off doc is now completed and stored on Confluence and now the Project Acceptance doc is on way to the client for signing. Once that's sorted, back to Confluence for storing. [I also keep a record of the release notes on Confluence, because... you know.... #Nerd).

02 - Handover to Support

Guess where this is going....! That's right ! JIRA SERVICE DESK! Whoop! Quick task... job done!

03 - Finalize Procurements

"Nothing to see here folks... move it along!"

(I had none...! But if it had been so, I'd have updated the JIRA task, processed any PO's and moved the task to DONE).

04 - Evaluate Project 

You know what this means.... RETROSPECTIVE.... it'll happen after the well-deserved weekend, but it's my favourite part of a project! Even on less than ideal projects! What did we do well? What could have gone better? Start? Stop? Consider? Keep doing? And then slapping it all into Confluence with a template that I've customized myself over time!! (Here's one I made earlier....)

05 - Write Closure Document

Sadly this is not in confluence but in word.... we're a young company and not as mature with Confluence as we'd like to be. It'll come one day, but for now, out of Atlassian and into Word & SharePoint I go, so I can share with the client for sign-off. (PDF will go into Confluence mind!)

06 - Celebrate

Oddly enough this comes as second favourite for me behind lessons learning & retrospective (mega-PM-Nerd) but despite that I still love opening some bubbly and getting cake for everybody - it is our preferred way of celebrating in the office! 

I wanted to share a photo of a previous celebration however there were so many I didn't know which one to choose - we go and buy cake sometimes just for the hell of it! - so as a Dutch company who loves cake I was inspired to make this meme!

("Ontwikkelaars klaar...? Ontwikkelen maar!" Hahahahahaha. Not many non-Dutchies will get it! Sorry for that)

 

07 - Archive Project

What's there to archive... ? We use JIRA & Confluence, right!?

(Actually... we do archive the project properly in Jira to keep it all clean and the Space in Confluence also. He he!)

THE SHOW MUST GO ON 😎🎪

Thanks to epic team work and the use of the Atlassian tools I can go into the week a happy little PM and chill.

That said, the next project is just round the corner (as always) but with this one in the bag, the benchmark has been set and we now know not only what perfect success looks like now, we know exactly how to achieve it! (And it'll all be logged in our Retrospective so we'll never forget. EPIC!)

Hopefully as a reader this has inspired you to have the best ever project close yourself and enjoy the process - whether it was a perfect project or one with many lessons learned: it's all good as long as the close is done right... right???

And now it's time for me to go and enjoy a nice cup of coffee... and by coffee I mean BEER and by cup I mean PINT! 🍺😋

[Wade Tracy _Boise_ ID_]

Nice job, Andy!  You make me jealous...but I'll get over it =)

[Andy - PTC Redundant]

Thanks @Wade Tracy _Boise_ ID_ ! Don't be jealous.... it took me many many years and loads of failure - but don't fret. For sure one day it will happen to you! 🧐👍

[Brad Foster]

Fun to see and anticipate in Asana.  Glad to hear gaming is alive and well at Atlassian. : )

[Fernando Bordallo]

Note taken for the future. Because I too WILL someday ;) close a 100% project