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Learn more about project closure, how it works, and its importance.
Published 31 Jan 2023
Project closure is the last phase in the project management process or lifecycle. In this stage, the project manager, their team, and their stakeholders review their deliverables, the quality of their work, and if the intended outcome was achieved and satisfactory.
6 Steps of the General Project Closure Process
According to the Project Management Institute, the typical project closure process can be summarized following this order of events:
Eliminate manual tasks and streamline your operations.
Project closure may seem like a natural event to happen in the order of project management, but it is essential to do it formally and have it on paper.
Improper or informal project closure can lead to misunderstandings between the project managers and their clients. Certain paperwork, especially legal ones, may not be filed, which can lead to issues with their local government. This can cause problems that may affect project delivery and turnover.
Another effect of miscommunication is that the client, without having a proper project closure, may not be properly trained or equipped to maintain or handle the finished project. If the project is a building, the client may not know how to properly keep it in good condition without a proper discussion. Similarly, the project manager may fail to properly communicate with the client how to properly care for the project, which can also be detrimental to them both.
The lack of a formal project closure can also affect how project managing teams work in the future. It is important for them to discuss their learnings, issues, and takeaways together after the project closure, as it can help them be better prepared for future projects and do better.
By definition, yes, project closure and project completion are the same. Sometimes, project closure is also referred to as project closeout. However, the more formal term for paperwork and legalities is project closure.
A project closure checklist is a dedicated document to help streamline the project closure process. Such a checklist can help assess performance quality, how a certain goal was achieved, and issues encountered during the project closure itself.
There are many ways to create a project closure checklist. Typically, a project closure checklist would contain:
While project closure calls for both project managers and clients to discuss its formality, project managers will have the final say in authorizing project closure.
Ensure all steps of project management are fulfilled before project closure with a smart, mobile-ready digital auditing app. SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) is one such tool that project managers and their teams can use.
SafetyCulture offers checklists to help you with your project auditing needs, from project initiation to project closure and project delivery. To get started, you can download free project closure and auditing checklist templates from SafetyCulture’s Public Library and just edit them as you see fit. You also have the option to create your own checklists from scratch, allowing you to make a checklist that is uniquely yours and catered to you and your clients’ needs.
With SafetyCulture, you can also:
Roselin Manawis
Roselin Manawis is a content writer and researcher for SafetyCulture. She has experience in news writing and content marketing across different fields of discipline. Her background in Communication Arts enables her to leverage multimedia and improve the quality of her work. She also contributed as a research assistant for an international study and as a co-author for two books in 2020. With her informative articles, she aims to ignite digital transformation in workplaces around the world.
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