Governance · tool 14 of 14
Project Closure
Project Closure: ends the project properly, so value is kept and nothing is left hanging.
Best for: End of project or phase · Time: 1–2 days
Domain: Governance · Focus area: Closing
How it works
Closure confirms acceptance, finishes contracts, releases people, hands over to operations and stores what was learned. It applies when a project is stopped early too.
- Get written acceptance.
- Hand over support, training and documents.
- Move open risks and issues to a named owner.
How to apply it
- Confirm acceptance against the criteria.
- Close contracts and pay final invoices.
- Hand over to operations with a support plan.
- Release people and thank them properly.
- Archive records and share lessons.
An app goes live. Support takes over after two weeks of parallel running, the vendor contract closes and the benefit review is booked for six months out.
Involve operations from the start. A surprise hand-over is the commonest closure failure.
Use it
- Template: Closure Checklist (blank), filled example
- Playbook: Should we stop this project?
Quick check
A cancelled project should…
Sources
- PMBOK® Guide, 8th edition, and The Standard for Project Management (PMI, 2025)
Last reviewed 2026-11-02 against the PMBOK® Guide, 8th edition · Practitioner review pending · How this guide is made