Discuss about the Project Closure for Smart Home Automation System.
Smart Home Automation System is a project that brings out the various methods and technologies that may be used in order to design the system. Some of these technologies and tools that may be used for the development and deployment of the smart home automation can be done through the use of a GSM based system or using a Smartphone. It may also be done using the PLC controlled implementation and several other techniques. There will be several phases that will be included in the project. However, the last and one of the most significant phases will be Project Closure. It is usually believed that the project comes to an end once it is successfully deployed. However, it is not the case (Gustafsson, & Yadav, 2013). The projects need to have a proper and a formal closure comprising of a set of closure activities. The same have been discussed in the report.
A project goes through a number of phases in its life cycle with the major phases being initiation, planning, execution, control and closure. The last and final phase in the lifecycle of the project is the closure phase. There cannot be the case wherein the project is randomly and abruptly declared as closed and completed. However, it requires having a formal closure with certain sets of activities to be completed. The case will be the same with the smart home automation system in which the final application once designed will be deployed followed by the closure activities. These activities will include the preparation of a closure report describing all the tasks that will be done along with the inclusion of activities such as acceptance and sign offs, lessons acquired and many more (Larson, & Gray, 2011).
This is one of the most significant activities that are associated with the closure of the project. There are several deliverables that are required to be provided by the project team during the project timeline. Each of these deliverables shall be submitted to the stakeholder associated with the project and it is also necessary that the deliverables include the required set of information included in them. The stakeholders and the senior management will then review these deliverables and will provide their respective sign offs. It is only after the sign offs are received by the stakeholders that the project will be considered as closed (Spmbook, 2017).
In case of the smart home automation system, there will be many deliverables that will be required to be provided as project charter document, project plan, and design of the smart home automation system, source code for the system, implementation and test plan for the system and closure report. Each of these deliverables will be reviewed and approved by the Project Manager which will then be delivered to the project client and other project stakeholders. The closure phase shall make sure that the delivery of all of these deliverables is made and they are accepted by the receiving parties.
There are many resources that are engaged with a particular project. These resources carry out various activities during the timeline of the project and in return develop skills and understandings related with the activities that are done. There are several occurrences that take place during the projects such as occurrence of certain risks and uncertainties that need to be managed and controlled, change in the policies and strategies along with the requirements, disputes and conflicts among the team members etc. that need to be tackled. All of these activities lead to the experiencing of the scenarios and understanding the ways to deal with them. Without the presence of a documentation of all of these activities, the management and leadership will not be able to understand the level of learnings that are acquired by the project team (Kfupm, 2017). Also, it will not be possible to gain knowledge about the specific risk areas and the response provided by the resource. Documentation of the lessons learned will be essential so that an idea of the performance of the resources may be gained.
In case of the smart home automation system, there will be many resources that will be engaged with the project. These resources will carry out many of the project activities such as its initiation and planning along with design, development and implementation. The resources will experience many scenarios and will also discover the methods and techniques to deal with these scenarios. All of these occurrences shall be recorded in the form of the documents which will not only assist in the measurement and management of performance but will also provide an opportunity to learn about the activities done in future (Kumlanderlab, 2012).
End users of the systems that are developed usually do not have the information about the technical background and infrastructure that may be present in these systems. It becomes essential to ensure that the users are made aware about the features and functionalities of the systems and are also aware about the specific scenarios that may come up. There are certain steps or actions that may commonly go wrong with each of the system and there shall be information provided to avoid them and alternative measures shall also be suggested. End system users such as the customers cannot always be provided with the trainings on how to use the system. However, system documents can be of great assistance to easily provide all of this information. Some of the system documents that shall be present in the systems include user manuals, warranty statements, frequently asked questions, assistance documents and licensing information (Clacsec, 2017).
In case of the smart home automation system, the user manual will suggest the measures that shall be taken to make sure that the users are made aware about features and functionalities that are used and present in the system. Information such as on/off of the system, steps to accomplish every system activity such as connections, integrations etc. shall be included in the manual. Other system documents that shall be prepared shall include assistance documents covering major query areas and their resolution along with list of the frequently asked questions. There shall also be warranty details and licensing information provided to the users.
The closure phase will not require the presence of all of the resources that were initially engaged with the project. There are many simultaneous projects that run in the organization and these resources may be required in the other projects. It will therefore be necessary to keep only those resources engaged with the project that are absolutely necessary. The other resources shall be released which shall be open to be tagged in other projects (Undp, 2017).
When the project is started and is initiated, there is a charter document that is prepared that includes the initiation details along with the information on the feasibility analysis. Similarly, when the project comes to an end, a report shall be prepared specifying the information on the activities that were covered during the timeline of the project and the major occurrences that took place during the project. This report shall be submitted to the senior management and the project stakeholders so that they may have a complete understanding on the activities that were covered and the approach that was acquired by the team members. It will not only aid in making all of this information available to the stakeholders but will also be beneficial for the future use. There may be occurrences wherein the organization may be required to complete a similar project. It is in this case that the management may look in to the organization documents and retrieve the closure report to understand the activities to cover and the approach to adopt (Ucl, 2017).
In case of the smart home automation system, the project closure report shall be maintained specifying the activities covered during the project by the project team members. These activities shall be elaborated and the resource engaged with the activity, major conflicts and problems that occurred, risks associated with the activities that were managed etc. shall be included. It shall also be made sure that the closure report includes brief information on the deliverables and milestones that were covered during the project. The submission and approval of the report will mark the end of the project.
Recommendations and Conclusion
All of the phases in the project are equally important and it is required that equal attention is paid to all the phases. It is often observed that the closure phase is not given due attention which leads to the emergence of a lot many deviations. As per the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and other popular project management methodologies, it is essential to adhere to the guidelines that are mentioned. Closure phase is included in all the commonly used management methodologies and same shall be completed with perfection. It shall also be made sure that quality standards are followed during this phase in terms of the design of the closure report and other activities associated with the phase.
References
Clacsec. (2017). Module 5: The Closing Stage. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://clacsec.lima.icao.int/Reuniones/2014/Sem-MajProy/Presentaciones/Pres006.pdf
Gustafsson, B., & Yadav, B. (2013). Closing IT projects: A Swedish public sector. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:653326/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Kfupm. (2017). Project Closure Process. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://www2.kfupm.edu.sa/eattachments/pmo/external-guidelines-project-closure-process.pdf
Kumlanderlab. (2012). Project Closing. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://www.kumlanderlab.com/idu3390/idu3390_konsp_13_2012_eng.pdf
Larson, E., & Gray, C. (2011). Project Closure. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://www.endustri.anadolu.edu.tr/ipoyraz/BIM405/icerik/Chap014.pdf
Spmbook. (2017). Project Closing. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://spmbook.com/downloads/slides/pdf/C03.10-ProjectClosing.key.pdf
Ucl. (2017). Project Closure. Ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/about/projects-and-developments/itcpdpdf/pdfexpress/projectclosure2
Undp. (2017). Project Closure Checklist. Info.undp.org. Retrieved 28 May 2017, from https://info.undp.org/docs/pdc/_layouts/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/docs/pdc/Documents/BGD/Project%20Closure%20Checklist_63954.pdf&action=default&Source=https%3A%2F%2Finfo.undp.org%2Fdocs%2Fpdc%2FDocuments%2FForms%2FAllItems.aspx%3FRootFolder%3D%252Fdocs%252Fpdc%252FDocuments%252FBGD%26FolderCTID%3D0x0120008F90FBF6FA09BA4B986DA533205DBD00%23mainContent&DefaultItemOpen=1
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