Agile Project Closure is about handing over to the operations team, tidying up any loose ends, reviewing the project, celebrating, and going home.

Handing Over to Operations

Where one project neatly runs into the next with the same team the development team will usually retain operational responsibility.  But ultimately projects are temporary things and eventually the project team has to hand over its product to the business-as-usual people, the operations team.

Different organisations will have different process, standards, and documentation for this.  From an Agile perspective the only requirement is to hand over the working code, build scripts, and associate test suite.

Tidying Up Any Loose Ends

The code and tests need to be checked in, environments decommissioned, paperwork (such as it is) filed or shredded, boards tidied up, index cards recycled, etc.

And don’t forget the possibility of the next project.  Keep a list of the User Stories that could go into the next project.

Reviewing the Project

During the project the Agile Team run retrospectives to see how they’re going.  You need to do one at the end as well.  Remember to consider those project management classics: did we finish the project on time, in budget, and is the product to sufficient quality?

The trick with this final review is putting the actions into effect given the team is in the process of disbanding.

Celebrating

People like to be appreciated and I try to celebrate every project somehow.  I recommend something out of the office and involving spending a bit of cash.  British people default to having a pint, but other cultures value dinner or some activity such as bowling.

Going Home

No project, no team.  Often this means the people get reassigned to other projects.