Despite being an important step in any venture, follow-up on completed business projects are often overlooked. After a project has been completed, follow up is an essential component in the evaluation and monitoring phases. Post-completion, follow up ensures the sustainability of the project, and allows you to monitor and communicate the developments.
You can perform follow up by spinning off new projects based on the original, or conduct internal supervision to continually monitor the progress and make necessary improvements.
Why should you follow up?
Following up on a completed project can serve many purposes and provide a number of benefits. One of the main purposes of following up on a business project is to control the impact and functions of the project, through verification and implementation. It is also important to maintain flexibility in decision making and using an adaptive approach. This can be achieved through feedback from regulatory agencies, and project managers in charge of the venture.
Another key purpose to follow up is to improve technical as well as scientific expertise, especially if the projects were based on specific scientific methods. You can also evaluate the efficacy and utility of these methods through different tasks, better understand them, and adopt newer technologies. This form of follow up helps improve the overall quality of the project. Follow up is also necessary to create public awareness for different projects and evaluate the response gathered by the intended demographic.
Supervising follow up on completed business projects
Following up on your project allows you to bridge the gap between planning and implementation of ongoing and future ventures. This practice not only determines and predicts the consequences of the project, but also provides your company the opportunity to evaluate the negative effects. You can start a follow up supervision program at your company with six simple steps. Start by determining the scope and needs of the follow up, and understand the goals and objectives you intend to accomplish with the program.
Next, define the time plan, methodologies, as well as the tools you will use to conduct follow up. These tools and resources can include anything from interviews with stakeholders, tests, visiting the project site, and any other activity relevant to your project. After you have determined the necessities of the program, move to financing the follow up. After your budget is ready, assign responsibilities and roles to different members of your group. After your employees have completed their tasks, gather and evaluate the data to represent them in a comprehensive report.
