Identifying Follow-on Actions

The fundamental principle here is that if there is any unfinished business at the end of the project, it should be formally documented and passed to those who have the authority and responsibility to take action.

Context

Most of the input will be those items on the Issue and Actions Log that were held back by the Project Board.

The output is submitted to the Project Board as recommendations.

Process Description

The aims of the process are to:

	Establish actions required following the project
	Document any Follow-on Action Recommendations
	Recommend a date and plan for any Post Implementation Review(s) considered necessary.

A number of actions may be required after the project. The input will come mainly from those Project Issues that were put into 'pending' status by the Project Board during the project.

All unfinished work is documented in Follow-on Action Recommendations.

Many project products should be re-examined after a period of use to check on their quality, effectiveness in use and achievement of benefits. Examination of the updated Business Case will identify if there are any expected benefits whose achievement cannot be measured until the product has been in use for some time. If this is the case, a recommended date and plan should be made for a Post Implementation Review, the benefits to be measured at that time and the measurements to be applied. These benefits should have been defined in the Business Case.

Responsibilities

The Project Manager has responsibility for this process.

Information Needs

Management information	Usage	Explanation
Issue Log	Input	Un -actioned Project Issues will form the basis of any follow-on actions
Actions Log	Input	Any outstanding actions will either be closed, or transferred to the follow up phase.
Business Case	Input	This will reveal benefits whose achievement cannot be measured immediately and will therefore need a Post Implementation Review
Post Implementation Review Plan	Output	Suggested plan for a Post Implementation Review for ratification by Project Board
Follow-on Action recommendations	Output	Recommendations for further work which the Project Board must direct to the appropriate audience for attention

Key Criteria

	Is a Post Implementation Review needed to measure achievement of business benefits and re-examine the quality of products after a period of use?
	How much time needs to elapse before these benefits can be measured?
	Are the benefits for this project alone, or combined with other project outcomes?
	Which 'pending' Project Issues should be recommended for follow-on action by the operations and support team?
	Which 'pending' Project Issues should be recommended to be turned into Project Directives for potential enhancement projects or referred to programme management for further action?