From the course: Project Management Foundations

Handle the adapt and close stages

From the course: Project Management Foundations

Handle the adapt and close stages

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- [Instructor] You've made it to the last stage of an iteration, the adapt stage. It's a time for review and reflection, like spending New Year's Day evaluating your previous year and resolving to do even better in the next. As you might expect, you and the team compare what was delivered to what was planned. You talk about what did and didn't work. The team might identify changes to make future iterations run better. Take time to review with the customer what's been done and make sure that the features are working the way they should. At the same time, check that the features produce the business benefits they're supposed to. Don't forget to hold a lessons learned session to share feedback. That way everyone can brainstorm ways to resolve issues and eliminate obstacles. Plus, everyone can improve by taking advantage of the things that went well. Feedback can lead to changes in the next iteration speculate stage. You might add or remove features from the backlog. The team could modify their estimates for features or update the risk register. The customer might reprioritize the features in the backlog. Maybe the team composition needs tweaking based on people's availability, or the skills needed. Finally, you might modify processes that aren't working well. The end of an iteration is a great time to celebrate success. In addition, the adapt stage is a chance for team members to take a quick break so they're fresh and enthusiastic about starting the next iteration. If there are more iterations in the project, the end of the adapt stage triggers the speculate stage for the next iteration. On the other hand, if the project schedule or budget has been used up, it's time for the close phase and tying up loose ends. You reconcile the project financials. Have all the invoices been paid? Have you closed the project account so people don't charge to them by mistake? You also need to work with resource managers to reassign team members. As in any project, you communicate the project results to the customer and stakeholders. It's important to get closure at the end of each iteration and the end of the project. That way you confirm the success of this and future projects. For practice build agendas for the review meetings you plan to hold during an iterations adapt stage.

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