What should a project manager do when the project is almost complete ?

this is the duty of project manager to prepare the completion report of the project physically and financially with preparing cast ant time run graph also to justify the  project completion in time and cast.

simultaneously the new project arrangements should be taken up at war footings leaving only limited staff for old project all the staff should be shifted to new.

Focus on the lessons learned

Learn lessons from the metrics you have collected and make use of it for estimating other similar projects.

I am not sure what you mean when Project is almost complete, does it mean Testing is completed and you are ready to hand this over to client, or whether you are working in tandem with the client, and most of the issues are resolved.

Either which way, ensure there is adequate, trained support staff for issue resolution, bug fixing, implementation and annual support responsibilities. If the project was really complex, a support staff with lesser strained persons who know the4 assignment would be a good idea, and they could also work on some other small assignments on the side with small trips so they dont run away, or get fatigued.  The above is necessary as this is a moral responsibility towards the client.

Release more strained people for a small vacation, party, incentives, learning or training opportunity on something they find exciting, and an easier project with higher rssponsibilities.

The other ideas are in sync with CMM requirements. If company has standard requirements, reports, HR initiatives to build staff skills, ensure all staff members get it, and tell them about it. They will appreciate this gesture.  Projects are all about PEOPLE working in very challenging and stressful situations. Final memories and impressions last the longest.

Do consciously take time out with the team and maybe client members to get face to face feedback as part of learning, and PR building exercise. Do commit your client support and thank him for patience as even for you it was a challenging assignment.  This will give client motivation to ensure project is implemented within his organization.

Work out Profit / Loss, cost considerations, FPA metrics, analysis your Risk logs, scope changes, quality committed v/s what delivered, analysis of Critical Paths and where they changed, which sub-tasks affected these etc. Clients only want to remember calendar committed end date, so you need to track your slippages (keep this private if you can, vested interests can use this against you especially in cost cutting times).

A project might be coming to an end, but the benefits from the project will be extended till the useful economic life of the project. Therefore, the project needs to be transitioned to its rightful owners who can maintain and benefit from the project. Generally in technology world, transition would generally be done to either customers or operations team who would support O&M of product or the software.

Transition would include activities like Documentation- Project as well as Product, Acceptance sign off, Handover and any other requirements as sipulated by contract/process.

Cheers

Now that it is done make sure that you verify that all the terms of your contracts have been met,