Don’t Just Finish – Finish Strong

How a Thoughtful Debrief and Project Close Checklist Can Set You Up for Future Success

Congratulations! We’ve reached the end of a project. Perhaps it was a four-week whirlwind, or maybe it was a two-year labor of love. Maybe it was all sunshine and accolades, or maybe it was a hard-fought walk uphill through sand.

Now what?

Before the celebration begins, there are two important — yet often overlooked — items that will ensure your organization reaps all the benefits of the effort invested in the project: conducting a project debrief and completing a project close checklist.

Project Debrief

A project debrief is your chance to hit pause and reflect on how things really went — what worked, what didn’t, and what you’d change next time. It happens soon after a project wraps up and includes the core team (and sometimes a few stakeholders). You put a lot of work into this project, so don’t let those insights slip away. Take the time to talk it out, jot it down, and use it to make the next project even better.

A “Project Debrief” agenda template is simply a tool you can use to guide the debrief and help you answer some critical questions, such as:

• What worked well that we want to be sure to do again next time?
• What caused confusion or created delays that should be avoided next time?
• Was sufficient time allotted in the schedule for each task?
• Was the schedule detailed enough?
• Did the quality and value of the solution(s) align to your expectations?
• Were the project goals met?

The agenda can also include notes about specific software:

• Did it work well for the task?
• Were workarounds required to do what you needed?

Also consider documenting:

• Size of the team (Too big? Too small?)
• Cadence of the review meetings
• Success of the file-sharing platform, meeting platform, or file-transfer approach

I recommend capturing these as actionable statements. When it comes time to revisit the debrief notes, you’ll be glad to see clear “go-do” bullets you can easily incorporate into your next project plan.

Keep in mind, a project debrief isn’t just for projects that experienced bumps and hurdles. While it’s essential to capture lessons learned from challenges, documenting what went smoothly and why is just as valuable, if not more so. Don’t miss the opportunity to document the best practices that made your project shine!

Project Close Checklist

The other vital item is completing a “Project Close Checklist,” which is simply a list of tasks required to properly wrap up a project. That project debrief I just detailed should be an item on the checklist!

Tasks on the checklist are certainly logistical, but some may be more psychological — a way to “put a bow” on the hard work you’ve done so you can walk away with a sense of accomplishment and confidently shift focus to your next project.

To avoid the pitfall of having multiple checklists based on different deliverables, create a checklist template that includes everything required to close a project — regardless of the project specifics or deliverables. Then, if something doesn’t apply, simply mark it “N/A.” This way, you’ll have one reliable go-to Project Close Checklist template.

Just like with a project open checklist or project plan, make sure each item on your list is actionable (i.e., starts with a verb). Here are a few I recommend:

• Confirm final deliverables have proper naming conventions for archive
• Conduct project debrief meeting
• Archive final deliverables/source files
• Conduct celebration with team members and/or clients
• Cancel any project-specific leased software
• Set reminders to follow up with the client for evaluation or maintenance steps needed in future months
• Write a success story for the website
• Submit the project for an award

A strong project close checklist helps you avoid leaving loose ends and successfully sets you to maintain or revise the project content down the road.

Wrapping It All Up

Closing a project well is just as important as kicking it off with purpose. A thoughtful debrief and a comprehensive project close checklist ensure your hard work pays off. Both help you and your team reflect, recognize success, and refine processes so that each project builds on the last.

For more tips on successfully managing learning projects from open to close, see my webinar and other blogs on this topic, which are linked below.

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Additional Resources

Blog: What’s on Your Project Open Checklist?
Blog: Don’t Get Lost in the Middle