The current stage is not formally complete until the Project Board accepts it as such.
The Project Manager’s End Stage Report may take the form of a document, a slide presentation or even a verbal account - whichever is agreed as suitable.
What Project Board members want to know is:
The Project Manager should be able to back up the report with evidence from progress records, from the Quality Register, Issue Register, Lessons Log and the Risk Register.
Project Assurance and/or Project Support personnel may also be able to help confirm the detail.
Some loose ends may be acceptable.
For instance, a minor product may be incomplete or quality review/testing follow-up action on a major product may not be fully resolved.
The Project Board must judge the extent to which incomplete work represents a risk, but there are simple ways of managing minor slippages like these (see ‘Assess project viability’).
However, if Project Board members are not satisfied that the stage is really complete, the Project Manager has not properly fulfilled the stage contract and Project Board members should make it clear that, in these circumstances, they expect to receive earlier warning in the form of an Exception Report - just pressing on, hoping that the situation can be recovered, is not an adequate response.
All references above are in Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2® unless stated otherwise.
PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.