Project Management

Projects must end, regardless of the circumstances leading to their conclusion. Understanding the closure process and how to close out a project are fundamental components of project management. Closing out a project can happen for a variety of reasons--successful project completion being only one of them. Let’s look at some of the various reasons for project closure: Successful project completion- The project’s deliverables were completed, tested and accepted. Now it’s time to close out the project. Canceled or postponed project- The project, for whatever reason, was canceled or postponed indefinitely. The PM still needs to go through project closure processes. Plan not approved- The project plan, for whatever reason, was not approved, nor were you sent back to the drawing board for revisions and updates. The PM needs to properly close out the project. Resources not available- Turns out that you cannot successfully garner the required resources (be they monetary, time or human), thus the project cannot go forward. You must still go through project closeout procedures. Regardless of the reason for the closure, the PM must go through the appropriate closeout processes.

When considering the close-out of a project, there are two different facets of close-out you might have to deal with. Contract closeout: When a vendor or contractor finishes up with their work, regardless of whether a procurement department is actually managing the closeout, you should go through an acceptance and closeout process. Some, but not all projects will require contract closeout. If you don’t have a contractor vendor on the project, you won’t need this closeout process. Administrative closeout: Properly closing out the project includes a variety of elements that you should consider. We’ll look at those elements one at a time in the next section. Administrative Closure: Properly closing out a project involves archiving the project, gaining acceptance, developing a Lessons Learned, turning the deliverables over to the stakeholders and releasing the team members. Project archive: During the course of the project, you’ve developed a lot of documentation. You have the requirements and scope documents, the project plan, various contract, budget and schedule papers, change-control documentation, etc. Archiving the project involves putting this information into an organised project book (also called a project binder). This information may not seem useful right now, but in the future, this book may provide very helpful information for you or other PMs who are embarking on a similar project. Included in the project book is the final signed-off project acceptance document. Formal acceptance: You’ve doubtless gained formal stakeholder acceptance as you’ve moved through the phases of the project and the major milestones. There is one last acceptance element: Sign-off denoting that the project stakeholders accept the final product