Aligning business partners expectations, marketing or public relations (PR)...essentially the same task which can make a good project great and even a bad project into a good project. Essentially expectations can vary between individuals and thus this is the most tricky aspect of any project. Each stake holder has to be managed individually but with a collective goal in mind. What may seem to be normal to one person may be an extra functionality to another. Expectations will determine the degree of acceptance of the project as the whole and degree of tolerance to any open defects as well as how much flexibility there will be to the time required to resolve.  

Proper Ramp Up Planning Most projects then to run to a specific deadline where the end point is the project deployment date and stabilization. Stabilization is generally a 2 week period on the whole but can vary from project to project. Naturally this can also vary from industry to industry but the main concepts are ideally the same. In IT projects the stabilization period allows the project team to ensure any defects or errors that may have slip passed the initial IT and business user acceptance testing (UAT), are addressed. In the construction industry they would also have a similar period for home owners etc to lodge defect reports where the builders or construction company will be liable to fix. After this period, the support for the final project is handed over to the ongoing support team who would be a separate organization. This period should be set dependent on the type of project and the issues that arise. Although a there may be a standard guide like 2 weeks, this shoul...

Sufficient Reference Documentation Documentation is always the last thing to do in any project's list. No one really likes doing documentation so this is one of the lowest priority in anyone's list. We will do it later is the usual thought but unfortunately later usually never comes. Project Managers should always ensure that this is part and parcel of any activities in their plan and a gradual documentation along the way will ensure that there is no large pile of paper work to be done at the end of the project. This will ensure that there can be a proper transition for ongoing support as well as a reference point for current and future support team members as well future projects. Come end of the project and everyone moves on to other projects and tasks, the memories of the project team will diminish and who know even if they are engaged for future enhancements for the current project, their memory of what was done my not be as fresh so will involve another learning cur...

All projects have to come to an end. The end of the project is a beginning of a new phase in the project life cycle. Ongoing support can be seen as the icing on the project cake, after all the ingredients have been prepared, mixed together and cooked to perfection. Most of the points here are more related to technical projects but are still relevant to other areas too. The process of handing over and the quality of ongoing support is a delicate operation and is equally important as the previous phases of the project. A number of areas should be considered in this process: Current skill sets of supporting staff Adequate resources to sustain ongoing support Sufficient reference documentation Proper ramp up planning Align expectations of business partners. Current Skill Sets of Supporting Staff An evaluation of the current skill sets of the supporting staff needs to be done to determine if : additional training is required for technical and business skill sets are requi...