MGT 474 Module 8 Project Closing and Lessons Learned Example

Open Four Days Early and $40,000 Under: A Closeout Report and Lessons Learned for a River Otter Exhibit

Student Name

Business Administration Program, Aspen University

MGT 474: Project Management

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Open Four Days Early and $40,000 Under: A Closeout Report and Lessons Learned for a River Otter Exhibit

On May 21, 2026, four days before Memorial Day, the new otter habitat at Meadowlark, a composite Wichita institution, welcomed its first visitors. Two otters from a partner zoo had completed quarantine and training, the water had passed thirty days of testing and the donor cut the ribbon. This report closes the project: it compares results with the baseline, reports early benefits, completes administrative closure and records lessons for the zoo's next project.

Results Against the Baseline

Where the Buffer Went

The corrective actions after the 73rd week recovered about three weeks, but two later events consumed more. The first water tests failed on bacterial counts, and the veterinarian required a second thirty-day series after the ultraviolet sterilizer was replaced under warranty. Then one otter developed a minor skin infection during quarantine, extending quarantine by three weeks. Neither event was a surprise in kind: both appeared in the risk register, and the buffer existed for exactly such events. Without it, the exhibit would have opened in late June.

Early Benefits

The charter set benefit goals as well as cost and time. From the opening through August, attendance was 14,000 higher than in the same months of 2025, on track for the 25,000-visitor annual goal. The campaign raised $680,000 against a $650,000 target. The education team reports that the underwater window has become the most photographed spot in the zoo. Full benefits will be reviewed after a year of operation.

Closing the Project

The PMBOK Guide emphasizes that projects exist to deliver value and that closing includes transitioning outcomes to the people who will sustain them (Project Management Institute, 2021). Administrative closure for the exhibit included final payment to the contractor after the punch list was completed, closing the line of credit, filing permits and inspection records, archiving design documents and the risk register and confirming warranties: one year on construction, three on pumps and filters and ten on the viewing window. Handover to operations included life support manuals, a maintenance schedule, keeper training records and spare parts for filters and ultraviolet lamps. The life support technician signed for the systems on June 15.

Why Lessons Are Usually Lost

Williams (2008) surveyed project management practitioners about lessons-learned practices and found that while most organizations held some form of post-project review, few respondents were satisfied with how lessons were then used. Lessons were captured in reports that were rarely read and seldom changed later behavior. He argued that lessons are more likely to transfer when they are explained through causal stories and built into organizational processes. Keegan and Turner (2001) studied learning in project-based firms and found that time pressure and the move to the next project pushed learning aside, and that firms often relied on the number of reviews held rather than on whether learning changed practice. The lion exhibit's lessons were never written down, which helps explain why its problems were nearly repeated until the board intervened.

Lessons as Changes

What Went Less Well

A closeout report that lists only successes teaches little. Three things went less well. Cold-weather concrete cost three weeks and $40,000, a risk the contractor should have managed and the zoo should have written into the contract. The rockwork subcontractor's productivity was estimated from flat walls, not curved pool edges, a lesson for future estimates. And the buffer, while it protected the opening, was nearly exhausted; a second unexpected event would have delayed the opening. The team also found that the anonymous risk cards became routine by the final months, with fewer real concerns raised, suggesting the practice needs refreshing on long projects.

Celebrating the Team

Closing also recognizes the people who did the work. The board hosted a dinner for the project team, contractors and keepers, and the donor's recognition wall lists every team member by name, a small step that Keegan and Turner's emphasis on learning cultures would endorse.

Keeping the Lessons Alive

Following Williams's advice, the project manager will present the story of the exhibit, including the failed pour and how the delay was recovered, to the next project team at its kickoff. The zoo's project standard, a twelve-page document, has been updated with the six changes, and the deputy director will check at the next charter approval that they are used.

Final Accounts

The final cost of $1.81 million comprised $1.56 million of base work, $85,000 for dewatering, $70,000 for the concrete repour and steel prices, $55,000 for rockwork productivity and $40,000 for water system retesting and extra quarantine care. All were paid from contingency, leaving $40,000 unspent, which the board returned to the zoo's capital fund.

Conclusion

The otter exhibit met its scope, opened early and finished under budget, and its first summer suggests the benefits will follow. The comparison with the lion exhibit shows the value of the practices followed through this course: a charter with authority, a protected scope, a buffered schedule, an evidence-based budget, a living risk register and earned value control. Turning lessons into changes in the zoo's standard process gives the next project the best chance to benefit from them.

References

Keegan, A., & Turner, J. R. (2001). Quantity versus quality in project-based learning practices. Management Learning, 32(1), 77-98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507601321006

Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.).

Williams, T. (2008). How do organizations learn lessons from projects, and do they? IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55(2), 248-266. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2007.912920