Closing a project properly

Preamble

Closing a project is the last step in its life cycle, to carry it out properly in Abraxio, we have identified 12 steps that we present to you in this article.

1 - Update Gantt dates and milestones

1.1: Progress

In Abraxio, each object (activity, phase, batch) at the lowest level of the Gantt defines a duration in days and a percentage of progress.

At the end of the project, these objects must reach 100% completion.

Example: my item has a progress status of 95%, I move the cursor located under the horizontal bars so that it reaches 100%.

1.2: Gantt milestones

To properly close the project, the milestones corresponding to the key dates of the project must be reached (e.g.: a deliverable, a validation instance, etc.).

Example: My “commissioning” milestone has not been updated. I click on my object and complete the form.
I click on the yes button to “milestone reached”.
My milestone is validated.

2 - Remove any possible assignments after the end of the project

The load plan must be balanced, the MD budget aligned with the actual consumption of the project and the allocations on future months removed.

In our example, we can see discrepancies between the budget and actual figures for the month of July and the MD budgeted for the month of August for employee Line Renaud.

2.1: Alignment of the budget with consumption

A discussion with your stakeholders may be necessary to arbitrate the recorded consumption, and thus validate or invalidate the times allocated to the project.

For your convenience, use the “Manage” button to align the MD budget with the consumed budget.

 

2.2: Assignments to future months are removed.

Allocations and budget for future months are removed from the budget lines (in blue) and from the employee allocation lines.

Example: click on the relevant budget boxes and enter an amount of 0 so that there are no more MD budgets for the month of August.

There should be no residual gap between the budget and your employees' consumption.

Result: the budget no longer contains a consumption variance for July and no residual budget for August.

3 - Check that the budget dates and the project dates are aligned

The planning dates and budget dates must coincide at project closure; a completed project can no longer carry a budget on its budget lines and workload plan.

Example: if steps 1 and 2 have been carried out correctly, you won't need to do anything at this stage.

4 - Block entry by employees (close budget lines)

In order to avoid possible residual consumption on the project, we advise you to close the budget lines.

Click on the “status” boxes of the relevant budget lines and select “closed”.

Your employees will no longer be able to allocate time to these budget lines.

5 - Close or switch the risks of a project  

Some risks can be closed and others called "residual" extended on the activity.

- In the first case, the risk status is changed to “completed”.

- For “accepted” residual risks, if this risk is still active at the end of the project, we will “switch” it to the corresponding Run activity with the associated action plan.

Open the risk management form and set your risks to “completed” status, then recreate the risk in the relevant RUN activity.

Example of residual risk: “IF analysis logs are not developed THEN it will be difficult to guarantee SLAs in production”.

6 - Close or switch project tasks

This is a great time to do some cleaning: close the tasks you have completed and/or change the task association.

Example: we modify the association of project task PRO00002 with activity RUN00001.

7 - Balance the € budget on the commitment and settle current orders

To balance your budget, we recommend using a comparative Budget/Consumption view of your budget schedule.

In the finance module, open the project's sub-budget and select the detailed budget. Click on “display” to set up a schedule view with the budget as “primary data” and the consumption as “secondary data”.

Budget alignment work needs to be carried out; the budget and consumption must be equal and current orders must be settled.

Example: our Power BI Subscriptions budget line shows a budget of €1,000 for the month of April and an expense of €800 for the month of July.

- I delete the €1000 for April.  

- I add €800 to the July budget.

- I balance my order.

Repeat this action on all budget lines.

Our € budget is balanced, budgets/consumptions are in line and orders have been settled.

8 - Update immobilization dates

We advise you to carry out this step in conjunction with your management control.

Example: in your budget, select the budget lines for your fixed assets and indicate the desired fixed asset start date.

In our example, the project is completed at the end of July, so the start date for fixed assets is August.

9 - Integrate any RUN costs into the activities of year N+1 (split the CCA lines)

At the end of the project, if recurring expenses have been incurred for the project and included in the project budget, it is necessary to pass these future recurring expenses through an activity (this is the RUN cost).

To avoid this, it is common practice to include these costs directly in an activity when they are discovered by the project.

The following operations must be carried out AFTER the N budget has been extended to N+1

These operations are carried out with your budget manager having access to the Finance module.

Example: Following “Project Alpha”, which consisted in deploying the Abraxio tool in my company, I will be invoiced annually for my Abraxio subscriptions. 

Select the budget line bearing this expense (here “Abraxio subs”) then select the target sub-budget “IT Management”.

Choose “Create a new line”

Fill in the required fields:

The month entered "From" allows the CCAs to be distributed in the correct manner:

1. Before this month, the CCAs will remain on the Project
   
2. After this month, CCAs will move to Targeted Activity
   

Important: Don't forget to have your supplier's contract and associated deadlines created if you haven't already done so!

10 - Move the project to the "Completed" status

In the project's "definition" tab, set the project status to "completed".

These are the standard reports offered by Abraxio, which your company can customize.

11 - Then archive (at the end of the year so as not to pollute the N+1 views)

When you no longer have any actions to take on your project and you no longer want it to appear in your portfolio, you can archive it.

12. Optional: Initialization of the project REX

To track the REX of your projects, we recommend creating one or two analytical axes at budget level to monitor progress.

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