Project Closure – International Business Management Institute

The project closure phase is the last phase in the project lifecycle, and it officially puts an end to the project. When you have worked long and hard on a project and it’s finally completed, it’s hard to find time to really close it down properly. However, it is definitely in your best interests to have a closure procedure so that you cover every base and can safely archive it.

Project Closure involves undertaking a series of activities to wind up the project, including:

Assessing whether the project completion criteria have been met
Identifying any outstanding items (activities, risks or issues)
Producing a hand-over plan to transfer the deliverables to the customer environment
Communicating closure to all stakeholders and interested parties

A Project Closure Report is submitted to the Customer and/or Project Sponsor for approval. The Project Manager is then responsible for undertaking each of the activities identified within the Project Closure Report on time and according to budget. The project is closed only when all activities identified in the Project Closure Report have been completed.

Project documents are usually archived so that they can be referred to if the organization takes on a similar project where the experience gained and the lessons learned in the current project would prove useful.

During the last phase of the project life cycle, meaning the project closure, everything should be detailed in order to measure if the project went as planned and if the outcome is done as required.

Bastian Backer