Once working with one manager who noticed the huge effects of using the Pomodoro technique, I asked him to describe exactly what it looked like before and after she implemented it in her day to day. She told me something like this:

I used to reply to one email. I would write a few sentences and now I needed an attachment that I received in another email. I switched to the inbox view and see that in the meantime two new messages arrived. I look at both - nothing urgent. I forgot what I was doing. So I return to the email I wrote and I remember that I was supposed to look for an attachment. I return once again to the main view of the inbox and....

Does this sound familiar to you? Constant distraction, doing many things at once, frequent context changes not only cost us the loss of productivity, but also completely destroy the sense of job satisfaction. To help people who are stuck in such a situation comes a technique called "Pomodoro", from a tomato-shaped kitchen timer, the use of which in this technique was first proposed by Francesco Cirillo.

When people read about the Pomodoro technique, they are surprised that it is so simple. In a nutshell, it is about:

Creating a transparent list of tasks to be completed in the near future,
e.g .: I will answer Mathilde, make a shopping list, clean the desk, vacuum the room
Set the timer to ring in 25 minutes.
It can be an alarm clock, kitchen timer or a special application. Turn off all distractions and work on tasks from the list.
If there is a new idea or any distraction, write it down to do later and go back to the tasks from the list.
When the alarm rings, finish work and take a 5-minute break.

It's good when the break requires some movement, like standing up, getting coffee, etc.

After the break, we can do another "Pomodoro", or 25 minutes of focus, but after four Pomodoro in a row you need to take a longer break (ex. 30-40 minutes).

In short: we set a plan, limit time, move on and turn off distractions, finally a break.

Some get a pair of these 25-minute "Pomodoro sessions" during the day, while others just need one in order to "Get things done"

So, basically, you have to write down what exactly you have to do so as not to think about it later. It can be one big thing (e.g. writing an article in my case) or a few shorter tasks (e.g. mentioned e-mails, cleaning the desk or creating a shopping list). Secondly, we set the alarm clock for 25 minutes and start working, taking on the first task from the list. 

The vast majority of problems with Pomodoro are just a reaction to distractions. After a few minutes of action, a WhatsApp message may come (you don't read it?), your phone may ring (you won't answer?), someone will come to your desk at work to ask you a question (will you tell her to leave?), Replying to the e-mail you will see that a new one has arrived ( will you try to hold on and not look at it?), the cell phone buzzing about a new notification (will be able to not look at it?), a new great idea appears in your head (won't you open the browser and start looking for information?).

If you want to successfully use this technique or any of its derivatives, you need to deal with this topic at the very beginning, and then patiently and systematically improve it. A large group of people who start using Pomodoro and see its effects or uninstall some applications from their phone to avoid the flood of notifications or mute the device during the Pomodoro session.

 
Scrum is not an extensive methodology, but rather a set of simple rules that allows to quickly get feedback on what's happening with the product and how our process works.
Scrum is based on three pillars. The first is transparency, which allows every member of the team to see what is really going on. If the team says that they have completed the work on the functionality it means that it works and the client can use it. If there are delays compared to the ambitious plans of the Product Owner, they are immediately visible. If there is any dysfunction in the organization (e.g members of different departments do not cooperate with each other), it is also immediately seen. Transparency allows to inspect, or analyze what is happening in a team, product or organization. Therefore, Scrum allows to quickly notice problems (e.g slow response time of the system) but also opportunities. These can be addressed by adaptation, that is, changing plans and adapting the process or product to reality. This could be, for example, a change in the scope, technology or the way the team works. 

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The Scrum framework was built with a minimal set of roles, events and artifacts. The relationships between these elements are determined by simple rules. Since 2009, the authors describe subsequent versions in the Scrum Guide. This document contains a full description, therefore, the things described there are unbreakable elements and the necessary minimum. Everything is also an addition, better or worse practice. 

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Taking into account the structure and methodology, Scrum serves as a growth enabler for many companies. The structure has great impact on efficiency and velocity of learnings. One of the most important tools for increasing the efficiency of agile teams is the Retrospective. It is not lessons learned that takes place after the project - that is, after the activities have been completed, but it is a meeting after each sprint. The team summarizes its activities, verifies errors and can influence its activities in the next sprint. This works extremely motivating for people in the team who can observe their development in a short time. Teams illustrate daily progress on the scrum board. It is a task plan for the entire sprint showing which tasks are still to be done, which are in progress and which have already been completed. Thanks to this, everyone knows at what stage they are, how much is left until the end, whether the team is on the right track to achieve the objectives of the sprint and who is currently working on what. Agile is based on an empirical approach. This means that knowledge results from experience and making decisions is based on what is known. With each sprint each team draws conclusions from previous actions and improves their work, but also makes predictability of delivery better, which increases the confidence in the team and reduces the level of stress. Finally, agile builds the team's culture. The goal is to streamline operations, introduce changes that will allow the team to work better instead of punishing for mistakes. All these make scrum an excellent tool that increases efficiency and enables growth within the company. 

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Due to the principles of transparency, inspection and adaptation, Scrum has a lot of possible implementations beyond software development. One of the possible ones which has been recently studied is construction one, where measuring progress is of utter importance for the project success. Project managers say after the team started using the Scrum system they could finally measure their progress by real quantification per cycle called productivity score, instead of relying only on Gantt charts to track progress. In Scrum the accountability is public, and everyone can see at any moment who is doing what and what is the current status of the cycle in terms of meeting goals. 



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There are two main reasons why companies are not able to respond quickly to all emerging changes in the market. The first culprit is the scaled, hierarchical structure of many organizations. The second barrier is the traditional work model - waterfall. While it worked under certain stable conditions, such a traditional approach under conditions of uncertainty threatens to issue effects of work after a fixed period or in many cases that do not meet expectations.
Agile is the recipe for both problems. The agile approach destroys the existing known organization patterns and flattens the structure by putting on interdisciplinary teams. Thanks to this, all specialists (graphic designer, SEO specialist, copywriter, analyst, social media marketer etc.) are gathered in one place, so there is no external interference needed to successfully complete assigned tasks.
Agile marketing allows to focus attention on the user and their expectations. This allows to provide a specific value that exactly matches users needs. Thanks to iterations and their short duration, the risk associated with making wrong decisions is limited and it is easier to adapt to sudden changes.
For marketing, the core concepts of Scrum have to be slightly modified. Sprint goal should be a clear deliverable, for example, “Audit the site and gather feedback” while the other could be “Send first mockups to client”. Any extra requests are put in the backlog and are handled by Marketing Manager acting as product owner.
Before a sprint goal can be established, a Scrum team runs a sprint planning session, in which they define the work to be done and the sprint goal for the upcoming sprint. Once the team has decided what items from the backlog to prioritize, they then work together to establish the overriding goals for the sprint and how to achieve them. All the rest of the tasks is put on the sprint backlog. Marketing teams should also have daily standups, in which they answer the three core questions:
1. What did I do yesterday to help the team reach the sprint goal?
2. What will I do today to help the team reach the sprint goal?
3. What are the problems that make me unable to meet the sprint goal?
The important part for marketing team is to cut off unnecessary meetings and let the team focus on delivering towards sprint goal. Once the sprint is over, it is time to do the review, in which all the solved backlog problems are discussed, the team talks about what has been done and how to improve next sprint. 

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In order to implement agile across a business, teams need to work together differently than they were used to. One of the major changes is for employees to stop performing tasks in isolation and convert into a cross-disciplinary, collaborative ones. 

In finance, this may mean gathering the accounting tasks, invoicing, paying vendors, reconciling accounts, reporting, tax preparation, collections, expenses reports, and tracking foreign revenue and put them into sprint backlog. Every member of the team gets tasks assigned at the beginning of the sprint and the team can use a board so that it is clear what they are working at in any given time.
In finance, implementation of scrum depends heavily on the structure of the company and the team members, but the pillars of transparency, inspection and adaptation along with the core roles and getting the task separated into more bearable chunks can be implemented. One case study supported dividing the budget control into a quarterly basis. While it’s not an option for every business, it definitely can be valuable for many teams. 

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Whenever it makes sense to implement some form of Scrum in the department or stick to the waterfall management is a question of efficiency. When repeatable and well known tasks are to be managed on a daily basis, implementation of Scrum, even highly modified, is probably not the best solutions. Kanban, however, can help to visually manage the work flow.
Kanban boards are a variation of the traditional kanban system, consisting in organizing the production process so that each organizational unit produces exactly what is needed at the moment, based on the circulation of product cards and card flow analysis. There are tasks to be carried out on the kanban board, presented using coloured cards. The cards are moved from left to right through successive columns of the table, which correspond to successive stages of the process. The most common tables are divided into three columns: "To do", "In progress" and "Done”. Those can be used to track all tasks, regardless of duration or frequency. 

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A daily stand-up within operations team may improve communication and collaboration and a periodic retrospective can help with learning and making process improvements, however, in this case, it consists mostly on implementation of management best practices than Scrum framework. 

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Scrum is an incredibly useful framework that consists of three core pillars, set of roles and basic process consisting on planning, development and retrospective in a limited time. Although Scrum should be implemented in its pure form to guarantee success, as a framework it is open to modification that can bring value to different functional areas beyond software development.
To verify whether Scrum makes sense in an area, it’s important to understand how many new projects the area is producing and whether it’s merely based on the same repeatable tasks or brings something different and unique with every sprint (ex. New clients to be closed or deals to analyse).
Scrum as a framework can definitely bring a lot of business value and managers should feel encouraged to experiment with it within their departments. 

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The basis for the activities of each project team is a framework, or work structure that sets and organizes the roles of individual members, their tasks and resources that will help them to achieve their goals. This is especially known to programmers who have developed a collection of Agile methods, including the recently popular Scrum.
Scrum is an agile and incremental method of managing project management, mainly used in programming projects that aim to provide new software functions every 2 - 4 weeks. This is one of the approaches that influenced the "Agile Manifesto" expressing a set of values and principles that help in making decisions about faster development of high quality software. Scrum is extremely useful for programmers, since new products and product improvements are customer feedback driven, and there iterations between the shipped features and feedback gathering are perfect to prepare a backlog and make adjustments to the initial concept.
Scrum applications
Scrum is, therefore, widely used by programming teams. In fact, it is the most popular agile methodology. According to the State of Agile report, 68% of programming teams use Scrum or Scrum hybrids. However, Scrum has also spread to other business functions, including IT and marketing, where there are projects that must be carried out in the face of complexity and ambiguity. The management teams base their agile management practices on Scrum, often combining them with lean and Kanban practices, and it is especially efficient in new project of high uncertainty where agility is needed and many changes are expected, that would not normally fall into a waterfall methodology.
Is Scrum fit for all projects?
Scrum defines a set of values quite well. At the very beginning of the Scrum Guide, we see the three pillars of the process: transparency, inspection and adaptation. The self-organization and interdisciplinary nature of the development team is also strongly emphasized (self-organizing and cross-functional teams). As we look further, we will find five values that are core to Scrum: courage, openness, respect, focus and commitment. We find stressing the work at a steady pace. Scrum belongs to the mainstream of agile methodologies, so the Agile manifesto is most applicable to it: people and interactions above processes and tools; operating software over extensive documentation; cooperation with the client over formal arrangements and responding to changes over following the plan.
So when does Scrum not fit? In my opinion, when team members do not have the values ​​that the methodology follows. When team members do not value teamwork, autonomy, self-organization, and they are not open to changes.
Scrum is also not a good option for a project that is well defined, has no uncertainty, and where steps are not likely to change as the project unfolds.
Sources:
State of Agile Report: https://explore.versionone.com/state-of-agileLinks to an external site.
Scrum Inc: https://www.scruminc.com/Links to an external site.

Balanced scorecard is defined as a strategic management systems used by organisations to communicate their goals, prioritise and measure progress. Essentially, BSC is a tool that supports the implementation of a long-term, effective strategy. This system enables orientation on the most important aspects of the enterprise and is based on monitoring and control activities, which ensure the effectiveness of long-term activities. BSC targets control activities that allow faster verification of errors and more efficient corrective actions.
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The Balanced Scorecard is very effective in project portfolio management, since it enables coherence between the set of strategic objectives and the projects implemented by the company. It is also often used by managers as it gives the opportunity to present strategies using measurable and realistic goals, consistent with both the mission and the vision of the organization.
There is a correlation between success from the determined strategy and appropriate assignation of tasks. The Balanced Scorecard consists of four perspectives oriented to financial and non-financial elements, enabling precisely the definition of appropriate goals:

• Financial
• Clients
• Internal processes
• Growth and learning (innovation).

The financial perspective allows to set strategic financial goals that ensure adequate long-term economic effects. It is measured by increment in sales value, increase in market share, etc. An important aspect of the financial perspective is its integral role in relation to the goals set in other parts of the Balanced Scorecard, since indicators of internal processes, growth and learning as well as clients should be adequate to financial indicators.
When setting financial goals, you should also pay attention to the phase of the organization's life cycle. Types of economic effects are different for different phases of the life cycle. For example, for a new start-up business an important aspect is to stay on the market and increase participation in the sector. In developed companies, the economic profit or the rate of return on the investment is of greater importance. For mature organizations, however, the financial goal may be to maximize the cash flows.
Determining the indicators in the customer perspective is associated primarily with the verification of customer groups of market segments on which the company operates. The clients' perspective is based on measures determining the company's market share, customer service and retention, customer satisfaction level, etc.
The perspective of internal processes is an element combining the two above aspects. Indicators of this perspective focus on processes that are the most important for the company, and therefore are based both on creating added value for customers and on undertaking investment activities in new solutions. Examples of such measures are, for example, the level of production quality, the number of new products, etc.


The prospect of growth and learning require careful and accurate determination of indicators. In this area, special attention is paid to the qualifications and skills of the company's employees. The development of the enterprise depends on their competence and knowledge. A well-functioning information system in the organization also allows the company to develop, thanks to fast access to information. The growth perspective measures include, for example, human resources potential, level of motivation, decentralization, and the possibilities of information systems.
Sources:
https://www.balancedscorecard.org/Links to an external site. Balanced Scorecard.
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/project-portfolio-management-strategic-objectives-6196Links to an external site. From the balanced scorecard to the project portfolio

Hard skills
Team alignment and selection is key in order to manage project effectively, and it is especially important since the process involves handling individual ambitions and expectations.
Effective project team is committed and supportive towards each other, but also fundamentally compatible and technically prepared to handle the project. Even with best efforts put into it, if a project requires a significant learning curve for all its members, it will most likely fail. Individual preparation of each and every member of the team is, therefore, one of the most important aspects when selecting the team.
Soft skills
On the other hand, soft skills are crucial to deal with egos and maintain all members motivated. Therefore, the leader of the project must possess a great deal of empathy, capability of observation and diplomacy needed when dealing with conflict. Every team member should know their value and how important they are for the overall project.
Additional factors


Paul Smith in his article Build an effective project team (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. underlines 5 factors to build great teams:

1. Clear goal
2. Getting the right people to do the job
3. Distributing roles and responsibilities
4. Communication
5. Team alignment outside of work

Optimising towards efficiency
Much of the leadership is based on the power of psychology and on the influence implemented to extract the best from each team. Thus, successful leaders use team management techniques aimed at being supportive and guide the people they lead.
High performance teams are usually the ones that keep constantly motivated. Empathy, communication and trust are essential when optimising towards efficiency.
In an article Improve your teams efficiency (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Jennifer Bridges gives some tips to optimise towards efficiency:

• Remove barriers that get in a way of performing tasks
• Reward team behavior to make sure the team feels they are working together
• Set specific dates and follow-up - be supportive.
• Clarify expectations.

Reasons why teams fails
Even with best efforts, teams sometimes fail. Usually, it is due to unclear goals or not transmitted in a correct way to each one of the team members. Sometimes the teams fail due to lack of interest by the management or ineffective leadership - if there is no leader, the team can hardly succeed.
Finally, personal conflicts can also lead to teams failure. With unhealthy relationship and conflicts, competition or rising individualism, the team is not going to be productive, focusing on personal aspects rather than actions and deliverables.

A portfolio can be understood as a group of projects, programs, sub-portfolios striving to achieve the company's strategic goals. Portfolio elements such as projects or programs do not have to be directly related or interdependent. The increase in the popularity of portfolios is dictated by the search for new development paths by organisations that have reached a certain level of maturity, as well as the need to introduce new changes, not only in terms of the range offered, but also in the field of process and system improvements.
The orientation of the company on portfolios manifests itself in the supervision of all its elements, so that the implemented initiatives bring the expected benefits, so it becomes natural to accept new projects, close the completed projects and eliminate unprofitable ones. In order to ensure success of portfolio management, there are several conditions that must be met:

• Full buy-in and alignment: everyone shall be on the same page in terms of the project
• Close procedure follow up: performing all the process steps in the right order, aligning them to the maturity level of the company
• Risk management: evaluation and prediction of possible risks,
• Selection and prioritisation of portfolio projects.
• Understanding objections in the process and gather feedback continuously.

Sources:
Identification of critical success factors for project portfolio management – results of a multiple case study (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Critical Success Factor For Measuring Project Portfolio Managements (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Team leader in project management
Regardless of the type of the project and industry, the role of a team leader lies in the broadly understood support of the team as well as creating favourable conditions for its team to deliver the tasks without office environment dependent bottlenecks. In addition, the leader is responsible for watching over the deadlines of individual tasks and ensuring positive relations between members of the group.
Good team leader
Leadership is, therefore, critical to project success. However, being an effective leader is a real challenge. According to business specialists, the features necessary to properly perform the role of a team leader are:
1. The ability to inspire and motivate the team: both motivation and inspiration are personality and behaviour oriented, therefore both talent and the right attitude are needed for success.
2. Responsibility: good project leader should be someone responsible and trustworthy.
3. Ability to listen: leaders must be able to relate to problems presented by the team members and act accordingly.
4. Having analytical skills: that part is crucial for correct understanding and estimation of project related issues.
5. Appreciating the achievements of the team: team needs to know that their hard job is not unnoticed.
Styles of leadership
Daniel Coleman divided different leadership styles into several parts. In democratic style everyone has the right to present their opinion, decisions are taken together and everyone feels equally important. Thanks to this the team feels responsible for decisions, company development, project implementation and any changes in which the team participates. The leader must demonstrate the ability to listen well and be open to new ideas and ideas, since this style allows building an atmosphere of understanding and respect. However, the decision-making time is extended by the need to discuss each issue with all team members.
In affiliative style the leader is focused on people, building harmony and understanding in a team. The manager supports team members often praising and highlighting positive qualities. This style focuses heavily on cooperation, commitment and team loyalty and is effective when employees are competent and focused on achieving goals. This style has some important cons though, as not every leader has a personal predisposition to such a management model. Also, the team must have certain clear and specific goals, otherwise this style may lead to chaos and lower efficiency, lack of procedures or even laziness.
Authoritarian style is often associated with visionaries like Steve Jobs who are naturally followed by the team. This style is highly effective style from the business point of view, as the leader mobilises team members to achieve a specific goal, but does not interfere with the path they follow. Team members feel very important because they can construct their own tasks themselves, they also know what are the criteria for assessing their work. Not every leader can implement this style though, since they  need charisma, commitment, and must be a natural authority of the team, with the ability to clearly and precisely define the goals and inspire to reach them.
Coach style is common for most developing teams. The leader focuses on each team member and supports its development, delegates tasks adequately to the competence of people. Thanks to this approach, employees know that their personal needs are taken into account and have the opportunity to develop their skills. There is, however, a big need to engage the leader while working with each member of the team, without knowledge and guarantee whether this commitment will bring expected results.
Command style focuses on telling the team exactly what to do, and in my opinion, works well only in crisis situations, where quick and indisputable commands are required. I consider this style highly antiquated, based on continuous monitoring and control of employees with no room for creativity. Unfortunately, in many companies, especially in administrative and governmental institution, this style is still very popular.
Finally, pacesetting style requires the team to do what team leader does. The leader teaches and shows how to do the task, and if necessary executes to prove that his method is correct. This style works best in sales departments, where employees are internally motivated and competent, but there is a very thin border between motivation and demotivation, especially when high results are expected.
Adaptation
The right leadership style can have a huge influence on project outcome. The best leader in any field adapts the style to situation and maturity of individual members, maintaining a high level of empathy and consistency while doing so (an affiliative leader who is acting like commanding just for one or two members of the team might be accused of favouritism).

Triple constraints or the iron triangle
Each project plan specifies its duration, costs and availability of resources (in terms of people, equipment, etc. necessary to achieve the project's objective) while maintaining required quality. The iron triangle, the golden triangle or the triangle of the triple constraints, is a graphical presentation of the aspects of the project: time, scope and budget. In each project they must be balanced correctly so that the project runs properly.
Scope
The scope of work (functional specification) is a document defining the project boundaries. The scope of the project is the basis for defining the project tasks and workload and defines exactly what is to be done. It is a set of activities that are necessary to achieve the main goal.
Cost
The cost expressed is specified in the project's budget. The budget is defined for the project as a whole, but also for its main stages. When the client clearly defines the upper limit of the budget, the scope of the project is adjusted so that this limit is not exceeded.
Time
Usually the client decides the timeframe of the project. The duration of the project is also related to the budget, it can be reduced, but it usually requires additional assets. Project managers strive for the most efficient use of the time allocated to the project, all the time keeping in mind the achievement of the goal, to complete the work within a given period.
Quality, the fourth parameter
It is important to take into account the constraints, since one parameter can not be changed without changing the others, due to their interaction. There is also fourth parameter of the triangle, quality, which is a component of each of the individual parameters. For example, if we completed the tasks faster than we planned, we can extend the scope of the project or spend more time on individual tasks, which in turn will give us a better quality product.
Optimization and balance
There are several ways to optimise the individual parameters of the triangle, and a good project manager must always ensure that they are in balance with each other. The scope can be optimised by allocating additional resources to ensure the implementation of all tasks, or by an extension of the project implementation date. Budget can be optimised by reducing the amount of resources needed, as well as its adequate allocation. Timing can be optimised by implementation of project tasks or reducing the scope. The constrains, however, are always interlinked, therefore a change in one of them automatically triggers changes in another. Optimization of triple constraints shall take place in the planning phase, the most important of all, and project manager shall be monitoring the execution and follow closely. Therefore, the most important aspect in order to make sure the project runs smoothly is its constant control.
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Project planning is a particularly important and difficult part of project preparation. Mistakes that are made in these activities usually cause problems in the implementation phase, causing, for example, the need to make numerous changes to the schedule or budget.  The Project Manager is fully responsible for developing the project plan, and for its updating and control during the implementation phase. In practice, especially in larger enterprises, the preparation of a significant part of the plans is carried out by technical specialists in a given field, while the plan is developed using IT tools by the assistant of the Project Manager or PMO. However, it is necessary for the Manager to be good at applying methods, techniques and planning tools, since it is their responsibility to evaluate the plan.
The second important aspect of planning, for which the Project Manager is responsible, is to include in the plan not only direct technical goals, but also business ones.
The particularly important features of an effective project plan are:

• Clarity - the plan is a tool for communication with project participants (team, sponsor, users, management), so it must show the image of the project and its requirements in a way that is understandable to the recipients.
• Realism - the plan can not reflect the wishes of the client or the management (so-called "customer-oriented" plan), but it must be an honest image of the actual needs and conditions of the project. An unrealistic plan leads to the inevitable failure of the project (eg serious delays or budget overruns).
• Susceptibility to changes - in each project there are numerous changes, only partly due to difficulties in predicting the future at the beginning. The changes relate to shifts of activities and their order, modification of dates or resources, etc. A good plan must allow changes easily.
• Enabling progress control - in the implementation phase, the most important function of the plan is to measure work progress to detect deviations and take corrective actions. An excessively detailed plan (or a vague one) does not allow for a precise assessment of the project's status.

Importance of project close out
The close out is the last stage of the process, which indicates the formal completion of the work. It’s very important moment in the project lifecycle, and it’s much more than making a final presentation, submitting a final report or releasing resources. There are several points important in the project close out:
1. Project results and documentation (maintenance, service and repair instructions, technical and construction documentation). Complete launch of the product at the designated place.
2. Guidelines regarding the scope and responsibility for further service, maintenance and completion of the project. Warranty and liability for maintenance work carried out in the future, as well as the expansion and completion of the project.
3. Closing the project organization and reinstating the team's employees for positions of the original functional departments.
4. Changing the use of technical resources used in the project. Ensuring that all resources used for the project are not left unfinished after the project is closed.
5. Analysis of the project closure (costs, final scope, etc.)
6. Results analysis with respect to the objectives set for the course or implementation of the project and the impact of internal and external components on the project.
7. Strengthening and entrusting knowledge gained during the implementation of the project.
8. Arrangements between the project manager and the client related to further work to be performed, maintained and supplemented.
9. The closing meeting of the project, which is the last meeting of all members of the project team.
10. Preparing a project closure report and providing information to all project members about its closure.
Long term project success
Many times even though the project is closed, there is still a process in place to ensure its success on the long term. Especially when implementing new productivity software solutions, project finalisation is actually still a beginning and the success or failure is determined by the months to come, in which either the team will use the software and make it part of the daily work or will stick to the old methods. Next steps and formalised support are essential to make sure the projects goals will be met long term.
Capturing project lessons
Independently of how experienced the project team might be, in every project there are lessons learned and processes that might be improved. Capturing project lessons can lead to creation of experience database from which further project teams will be able to learn and use it for multiple purposes, for example to assess project risk. From my experience, during the project, project manager should be gathering the feedback on an ongoing basis. At the end of the project, an in depth interview with core stakeholders and a survey with all members is a good way to capture multiple points of views and determine what could have gone better.