FREE Project Completion Template
Master project completion timelines with our intuitive project completion gantt chart templates.
Get started for free
Master project completion timelines with our intuitive project completion gantt chart templates.
Get started for free
No matter their scope or nature, eventually projects come to an end. It’s as just as important to prepare for that end as it is for the project’s initiation. Doing so requires more than just keeping tabs on progress. It means having the right plan in place for when things wrap up so you can close out the project successfully.
This is usually done using a simple job completion form or a project completion report. Creating those documents can be time-consuming, but a project completion template can help. What is a project completion form template?
A project completion template is a structured document that summarizes the final stages of a project. It captures essential information, ensures proper handover, and facilitates communication with stakeholders.
While creating a project completion report template in Word might seem like the right path, this is the wrong tool. Instead of a word processor, consider using a project completion Gantt chart instead. Gantt charts like Tom’s Planner deliver flexibility, customization, and scalability so you can easily plan your project wrap-up in detail.
The right tools will help set you up for success with your project. Gantt charts are vital to achieving positive outcomes and play a crucial role in project management. Here’s why:
Gantt charts visually depict project tasks, timelines, and dependencies. They help project managers and teams understand the project’s flow and critical path, which are vital considerations when documenting project completion.
Gantt charts show which tasks must be completed before others can start. This ensures smooth progress and prevents bottlenecks, but also helps when finalizing a project.
By mapping out tasks over time, Gantt charts help allocate resources efficiently. Resource allocation and management tie into project completion reporting.
Regularly updating the Gantt chart allows tracking of progress, identifying delays, and adjusting schedules. All of this information should be included in your project completion template, as well.
Gantt charts provide a clear overview for stakeholders, making project communication more effective. Keeping stakeholders engaged and on the same page will help ensure satisfaction and alignment with deliverables at the end of the project.
Tom’s Planner delivers all the flexibility and customization you need for initial planning, ongoing project management, and detailed reporting when it’s time to finalize everything.
By clicking the button here above you grant us permission to share your
input in relation to this project with OpenAI
for analysis and processing.
Not sure what to include in your project completion certificate template? Every work completion checklist will be different, but most include some of the same components. Here are some key elements typically included in a project completion template:
Briefly describe the project, its objectives, and scope. This lays the foundation for the rest of the report. The summary explains the project and helps stakeholders, managers, and others understand whether it achieved its goals.
List all project deliverables and confirm their acceptance by stakeholders. Note that deliverables can be different for each stakeholder. A feature that saves one stakeholder time might help another stakeholder save money or reduce payroll hours. Accurate planning before and during the project will help you accurately identify all deliverables and map them to each stakeholder in the job completion form template.
Evaluate whether the project stayed within budget and met the planned schedule. Note that you may have variances. Projects evolve over time and it’s possible that yours has grown even without scope creep. Map budget and project changes along with the overall flow within work completion forms to help illustrate to stakeholders whether you met budget and scheduling parameters.
Assess client satisfaction and gather feedback. Like deliverables, clients can vary. You may not be dealing with a client outside your organization. For instance, if the IT team is developing a new back-office app for sales, then the sales department is the client. Again, accurate planning is essential here. Your project should have started with a solid understanding of the client’s needs and goals so that the project would ultimately address those and boost satisfaction, which would then be recorded on your project completion checklist.
Ensure all project documentation (reports, files, invoices) is complete. This can often be challenging simply because project management requires so many documents – outlines, kick off templates, overviews, and timelines are just a few of them. The best practice here is to ensure that your documents are complete at the time they’re used, and then perform an audit before you wrap everything up.
Reflect on what went well and areas for improvement. All projects should result in lessons, and they can provide valuable feedback for future projects, as well as informing about the skills and capabilities of project teams.
Creating an effective project completion plan involves several steps. Here are some pro tips:
Clearly articulate project success criteria and objectives. Did the project meet these goals? Use the project success criteria to evaluate the overall success or lack thereof. Define the reasons and factors affecting your project’s success or failure, particularly as they relate to project goals. For instance, were the wrong goals set?
Ensure all project deliverables meet expectations and are accepted by stakeholders. Your project completion form should discuss all the relevant deliverables from the project, how they met stakeholder needs and expectations, and if there were any shortcomings or points of disagreement. Note that some clients may not be on the same page regarding deliverables. Does your expect something more than what they’re receiving? Without their satisfaction, you can’t successfully conclude the project.
Reflect on what worked well and areas for improvement. Again, there are always lessons to be learned. Nothing ever goes completely to plan. What happened within your project? What learning moments did the team experience? Could the workarounds and solutions developed be deployed on other projects or within other situations?
Summarize project performance, budget adherence, and client satisfaction. Your work completion checklist should be robust and accurate. Understand that performance, compliance with the budget, and client satisfaction are the primary drivers of project success (or failure), despite any other value or deliverables that might have been produced.
Transfer project ownership to stakeholders and recognize the project team’s efforts. Once the project wraps up, the deliverables belong to the client. However, there may still be things for your team to do, like ongoing maintenance and updates in the case of software projects. Client handover will involve providing them with your project completion agreement template, and depending on the scope of your project, may also require providing training for the client’s team(s) to use the deliverable.
When projects wrap up, they don’t just end. You must document the results. Your project completion document summarizes the project’s journey, including its successes and failures, lessons learned, and recommendations for improvement. It should include objectives, budget, performance, client satisfaction, deliverables, and a wrap-up analysis.
Project completion and project closure are similar, but not identical. Project completion primarily focuses on ensuring that all deliverables are produced and submitted, while project closure focuses on wrapping everything up and documenting all the details in a project completion document.
Creating a project completion document requires specific steps. First, review your project success criteria, and then verify your deliverables, conduct a post-project evaluation, write a project completion report, issue a project completion certificate (if applicable), archive all project documentation, and then release the project team.
Project completion documents are important for many reasons. First, they provide stakeholders with a summary of the project and everything about it. Second, they help identify potential issues and make recommendations about how to avoid those problems with subsequent projects. They inform learning, help identify customer satisfaction levels, and assess success.
Completing a project begins with accurate, in-depth planning. A Gantt chart can help immensely by offering visibility into project data for accurate understanding. You’ll also need to execute accurately, monitor the project, allocate and manage resources, and keep your stakeholders informed.