Document Owner(s)

Project/Organization Role

Dena Barnes

RCI Member’s Mobile App Enhancement/Project Manager

Version

Date

Author

Change Description

1.0

7/19/2014

Dena Barnes

Area 1-3, 6

1.1

7/20/2014

Dena Barnes

Area 4 and 5,7

1.2

7/21/2014

Dena Barnes

Area 1-7

Project Closure Report Purpose

The purpose of this report is to provide final closing documentation for the Resort Condominiums International (RCI) members’ Mobile App Enhancement Project. The report also is a reflection of Lessons Learned throughout the project and conveys business process improvements that are best practices. The report serves as an asset to the leadership in assessing the strengths, weaknesses and value that the project provided to be leveraged for future versions of the app, or additional projects.  

Project Closure Report Goals

The goal of the Project Closure Report is:

·         To review the entire IT plan and validate if all assumptions and constraints were met.

·         To review project dependencies and confirm if these met with the stakeholder expectations.

·         To review the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and make sure that all tasks were completed.

·         Confirm the quality of the product checking that all bugs and issues were fixed.

·         Confirm that re-gression testing was completed before closing the project.

·         Follow closeout tasks outlined in the schedule.

·         Conduct a Lessons Learned meeting with product stakeholders and upload all project documents as artifacts.

Project Background Overview

The original overview of the project was to conduct a study of Resort Condominium Internationals (RCI) members’ mobile app (Adams, 2014). RCI International is a division of Wyndham Worldwide. A vacation ownership company and a leader in the vacation exchange industry. The company specializes in timeshare exchange as a service to their customers and is one of the first companies to provide a resort app using mobile app technology. The app they provide allows their customers to review account information, make reservations, and check RCI partnership information. It is compatible with iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices. The devices at a minimum must have an iOS 6.1 operating system, or better (RCI, LLC., 2013). See benefits, risks, security and return on investment in original IT Plan (Barnes, Unit 2 2014).

Project Highlights and Best Practices

Project Highlights:

·         Writing a detailed WBS for all project team members to follow.

·         Having other team members, or peers review the WBS to make sure tasks were not missed throughout the schedule.

·         Writing a detailed IT plan for all project team members and stakeholders to follow during the project life cycle.

·         Having a Communications Plan during the project life cycle.

·         Having a Risk and Mitigation Assessment Plan during the project life cycle.

Project Best Practices:

·         The Risk and Mitigation Plan written during the construction phase of the project, was useful when the two resources were removed and one resource had to leave, due to a family emergency. It provided a strategic plan for moving forward with the project.

·         Having a Communications Plan that was already written assisted in good communications throughout the life of the project.

·         Having a risk registry and issue logs assisted in keeping track of problems that arose during the project.  

Project Closure Synopsis

The project has met all milestones and deliverables set forth in the IT Plan. Deployment has been stakeholder approved. Execution has occurred and closure tasks have been completed. An updated schedule can be found in section 7.1.

Goals and Objectives Performance

The project goals and objectives were only to address the upgrade or enhancement of the RCI members’ mobile app version 5.0 (Apple, Inc., 2014). This involved features, functionality, maintenance, infrastructure and systems issues that sustain the reservation system, and database for the RCI company (Barnes, Unit 3 2014). All areas listed above within this paragraph kept the project within scope.

The out of scope areas for the company still remain the same and are listed below. The features for each of these projects were not implemented for the RCI Mobile App Members’ Enhancement project and continue to be separate projects (Apple, Inc., 2014; Barnes, Unit 3 2014).

RCI Ventures

RCI Endless Vacation

RCI Affiliates

Success Criteria Performance

Performance Issues:

The following performance measures were set at the beginning of the project, during the delivery of the IT Plan and have been addressed (Barnes, Unit 4 2014).

Identification of all risks for acceptance, mitigation strategy, transference or the impact.

o   During the project test and training plans were delayed by a day due to other tasks requiring attention. The delay was documented in the issue log.

Communication of each risk and the level of impact will be documented.

o   Each risk and issue were clearly communicated and documented according to the Communications Plan outlined in the IT Plan. Risks and issues were addressed during status meetings to keep all stakeholders informed of the progress and health of the project. 

Define the role and responsibility and the responsible party for each risk providing feedback to the project manager.

o   A risk register and issue log were kept during the project and each risk addressed was assigned to either a project team member, or stakeholder.

Avoid scope creep by mitigating changes to scope.

o   Two key resources were removed during the project due to a stakeholder decision. Additionally, another resource had to leave for an extended length of time because of a family emergency. To counteract this and solve the remaining scheduled tasks, the PM and other project resources were assigned to the tasks.  

o   A Decision Analysis Report was completed during this time to provide a tracking mechanism and decision process for the project.  This became a permanent project artifact.  

o   Software bugs were addressed rapidly by either the developer, or software engineer, and documented in the project issue log.

A risk response register became a permanent project artifact and documents the risks that were acquired during the project.

An issue log was kept during the project and is a permanent project artifact.

Project Transition:

Maintaining operational needs after project closure will be the responsibility of Ellen Hampton, and the IT Department.

Milestones and Deliverables Performance

The following milestones and deliverables were achieved during the project. All quality standards set forth in the project IT plan were followed according to customer expectations (Barnes, Unit 3 and 4 2014).

Milestones:

• Project Proposal – 12/13/2013
• Kickoff Meeting – 12/26/2013
• Design – 1/7/2014
• Development – 1/13/2014
• Implementation -1/16/2014
• Unit Testing – 1/20/2014
• UAT Testing – 2/5/2014
• Customer Acceptance and Approval – 3/18/2014
• Stakeholder Approval – 3/21/2014
• Deployment (Go Live) – 3/24/2014
• Project Closure – 4/2/2014

Deliverables:

·         Estimated Schedule - delivered to Stakeholders 1/7/2014

·         Budget and Cost Summary – delivered to Stakeholders 1/7/2014

·         Communication Plan – delivered to Stakeholders 1/7/2014

·         Status Reporting -  delivered to Stakeholders 1/7/2014

·         Risk Assessment/Mitigation Plan - delivered to Stakeholders 1/7/2014

·         Quality Assurance, Control Plan – delivered to Stakeholders 1/7/2014

·         Roles and Responsibilities Plan – delivered to Stakeholders 1/7/2014

·         Implementation Plan – delivered to Stakeholders 1/16/2014

·         Test Plan – delivered to Stakeholders on 1/21/2014

·         Training Documentation – delivered to Stakeholders on 1/21/2014

·         Lessons Learned – 3/25/2014

·         Project Closure Report – 3/27/2014

·         Conduct project close out with Stakeholders (presentation) – 3/31/2014

·         Archive all project documentation to company repository – 4/1/2014

Schedule Performance

Project Schedule Overview:

After extensive review of the scheduled performance of the project, it is determined that even though the project remained within budget, the schedule ran behind continuously.

During the first status meeting on January 17, 2014, the cost summary was: Planned value = $245,355.00

Actual Value = $127,489.00

Earned Value = $130,038.00

Worked completed to date = 53%

This provides a Schedule Performance Index (SPI) of.53 which is less than 1 and means that the project was behind (Usmani, 2014).

Earned Value was calculated by taking the work completed value of. 53 multiplied by the Planned Value of $245,355 = $130,038K.

During the next status meeting on March 14, 2014 the cost summary was:  Planned value = $243,943.00

Actual Value = $230,686.00

Earned Value = $200,033.00

Work completed to date = 82%

This provides a Schedule Performance Index (SPI) of.8 which is less than 1 and means that the project was still behind (Usmani, 2014).

Earned Value was calculated by taking the work completed value of.82 multiplied by the Planned Value of $243,943 = $200,033K.

Schedule Control Process/Corrective Action/Integration and Management:

The re-allocation of resources assisted in bringing the schedule in on time; however, for future projects it has been determined that SPI needs to be watched more diligently. This is a Lessoned Learned and is documented below in section 5.8.

Budget Performance

Project Budget Overview:

When the project started the original budget allocated to the project was 250K. The planned costs were $245,355 dollars, with actual costs at $243,943 dollars. This was a cost savings of $1,412 dollars and cost variance of .5 percent. At this time only 53% of the work had been completed.  

At the time of the resource re-allocation by the project manager it should be noted that the project was at 82% complete with $230,686 dollars being spent and as stated above an SPI of.8. The remaining balance was at $13,257 dollars.

Corrective Action:

The project manager re-assigned other team members or themselves to the remaining tasks on the project and assisted in bringing the project in on time and under budget.

Metrics Performance Recommendations

The following is a Business Process Improvement and recommendation for future projects, and is an extension of what was stated above in Section 4.4.

The stakeholders should request that the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) for every project be completed sooner, as a best practice. This will allow the project manager to see if the schedule is behind, or ahead sooner. Adding this step in managing the overall project will improve performance and allow for the stakeholders to see if the management reserve is needed. The management reserve is the stakeholder contingency plan that is set aside for projects in case that an emergency situation occurs, such as a budget shortfall, features that may need to be added due to necessity, or if additional resources are required, for the project (Harrin, 2014).

Resource Management

Project Resource Management:

At the beginning of the project resources were allocated due to the expertise needed for the required features and functionality. During the length of the project one resource was gone for an extended length of time and other’s were removed because their expertise. Resource re-allocation was necessary for project success.  

Resource Transition after Project Closure:

All project resources will return to their normal operational duties after the project has closed. As stated in Section 4.2 the IT Department will be taking over operational and system needs for maintaining the mobile app and security necessities.

Knowledge Transfer of Employees:

Project knowledge from project team members will be captured in the Lessons Learned document and uploaded as a project artifact to the company repository, for future use.

Issue Management

All issues and risks during the project, listed in the risk management area (See Section 5.3), have been resolved. Management of the application will be the responsibility of the IT Department upon closure of the project and any software issues found after deployment will be addressed on a case by case basis. A decision will be made to determine the impact, priority and response which may require an additional version, and project.

Risk Management

Risk Management Plan:

The following risk management plan was set in place to manage any risks, or issues found during the life cycle of the project (Barnes, Unit 3 2014).

• If changes to the initial requirements for functionality invoked scope creep and impacted the schedule, then the project team worked with each department and stakeholders to insure that the problem was addressed. Once deployment was inevitable, then a user acceptance document and stakeholder acceptance was achieved.
• Version history was updated to fix minor bugs, the GUI interface and social networking (Apple, Inc., 2014). The development and software engineer added these features and identified software bugs during unit testing.
• Increased functionality will increase the possibility of brand tarnishment and customer postings of poor resort reputations (RCI, LLC., 2014). It was determined that during the IT Plan RCI would need to addressed these concerns and provide recommendations to RCI affiliates for proper management of customer concerns and responses for improvement (RCI, LLC., 2014; Barnes, Unit 3 2014).
• Possible vulnerabilities to infrastructure due to third parties accessing the system. The mitigation strategy for this area was for the IT Department to be heavily involved in conforming to monthly patches and firewall intrusion detection for updating the Secure Socket Technology needed to secure the system (Barnes, Unit 3 2014).
• Communication between stakeholders and project team. See the communication and status meeting plan listed in the IT Plan (Barnes, Unit 3 2014).  
• Third Party internet travel sites, technical problems, regression testing, and software bugs were mitigated by the project team monitoring the project closely and keeping a risk registry and issue log, documenting each item during unit and user testing. All risks and issues have been resolved for the project and there are no outstanding problems to be worked at this time. Additional features will be the responsibility of the next project version 5.0.1.

Outstanding Project Risks:

There are no outstanding project risks or issues at this time.

Quality Management

When the project began, a Quality Control Resource (Frances Brown) was added to the team, to assist in measuring and monitoring the quality of work being produced. This was to ensure that the original scope of the project was upheld and no deviation occurred. It was imperative that all features and a new GUI interface be user friendly and customer oriented, for all RCI customers.

The Quality Control Resource oversaw processes for design, development, unit testing and user testing, which then assisted the project manager in making sure that a quality product was being provided. Regular status meetings with the stakeholder were held to make sure that requirements were being met, standards were being addressed and approvals were being obtained. 

As in any project issues due arise and because of a family emergency, Ms. Brown left the project for several weeks, leaving the user testing task and remaining quality tasks, to the Project Manager (Dena Barnes) and Project Team Member (Carol Barbaco). Ms Brown returned to the project during the Transition Phase.

All quality tasks were met during the project, and there is no post, or outstanding tasks to be worked.

Communication Management

During the drafting of the IT Plan, a Communications Plan with roles and responsibilities was addressed. All status meetings were held as directed by the plan and it was a useful tool providing guidance for all involved in the project, for effective communications. There were no changes to the Communications Plan, during the life of the project.

Customer Expectation Management

Customer expectations did not vary during the course of the project and the following list provides the enhancement expectations (Barnes, Unit 3 2014).

The enhancements allow:

·         Customers to view their account.

·         Account information, make deposits, redeem offers and provide more freedom of use, bypassing the customer service department.

·         Link the customer to the reservation system for RCI.

·         Allow for connections to social media and share vacation photos with family and friends while capturing vacations through email, Facebook or Twitter accounts (Adams, 2014; Apple, Inc., 2014).

·         Allow for customers to receive press releases, vacation magazines and use affiliate tools to review brochures and links to other resorts. These resorts are affiliated with RCI and are partners, so customers can book with them as they do with RCI (RCI, LLC., 2013).

·         Keep RCI customers up-to-date with current resort information.

·         Allow customers to view resort videos and photos for information purposes to make informed decisions regarding future vacations.  

·         The ability to save and share resort information into the “My Resorts” list. The customer can then share information with family and friends for topics of discussion in planning resort vacations (RCI, LLC., 2013). 

Asset Management

Resources will return to their assigned duties within the company once final closure of the project has been completed; however, there are enhancements that need to be made and another version that will need to be introduced. All project team members should keep in mind and anticipate coming back to the project to work the next enhancement. (The latest version, 5.0.1 was introduced in June 2014) (RCI, LLC., 2014).

Lessons Learned

Activities that worked well during the project:

·         The Unified Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process worked well for this project, but a Waterfall, Agile, or Project Management Life Cycle process would have worked well also.

·         Completing a peer review partially through the project assisted in making sure that the IT Plan was complete.

·         Tracking risks and issues throughout the project assisted in maintaining who was responsible for each problem, and made sure each problem was completed. Each log also became a project artifact to be used as a template for future projects and reflection.

·         The Communication Plan provided the necessary guidance for effective communications.

Activities that did not work well and need improvement for future projects:

·         While placing the cost information in MS Project works well it does not provide the added benefit of the formula breakdown necessary, for Earned Value Management. In the future cost information can still be placed in the project plan, but a separate Excel spreadsheet will need to be kept for time and materials, planned and actual, to provide a complete project overview.

·         It was determined while completing the project close out document that the SPI determined the project was late, throughout its progress. Completion percentages seemed to be moving at an acceptable rate, but in the future SPI will need to be determined earlier. This will prove that resource re-allocation is needed sooner. If the SPI would have been completed the stakeholders could have seen that an improvement was necessary and resources could have been utilized better. This could have impacted the budget for an additional cost savings. Also reviewing the SPI sooner assists in re-evaluating whether a project needs to be terminated early, in their life cycle.

Post project Tasks

Project Tasks Completed:

• Inception-(Initiation) 100%
• Elaboration (Planning)– 100%
• Construction (Execution) – 100%
• Transition (Deployment/Monitor and Control) -100%
• Project Closure (Closed) – 100%

Post Project:

o   Presentation to stakeholders

Project Closure Recommendations

Stated above in the post project tasks, is a list of the project closeout procedures. Further recommendations are to conduct a follow-up meeting with all stakeholders once the project is closed to keep the flow of communication open. Because this was an enhancement to the current mobile members’ app, future versions will need to be deployed. This will keep the lines of communication fluid for performance and to leverage project team member knowledge.