Close Project or Phase is the process of finalizing all activities for the project, phase, or contract. project closure phase process in project management ( PMP) has several main benefits: it stores information about the project or phase, finishes the planned work, and frees up resources for the organizational team to work on other projects. This step is either done only once or at set times during the job. Below is a picture of the process’s inputs, tools and & Techniques , and outputs.

Close Project Or Phase: Inputs
Project Charter
The project charter lists the factors for success, the steps needed for approval, and the people who will sign off on the project.
Project Management Plan
This process uses every part of the project management plan.
Project Documents
Some examples of project documents that could be used in closing phase process in project management are, but are not limited to:
- assumption log
- basis of estimates
- change log
- issue log
- lessons learned register.
- milestone list
- Project communications
- quality control measurements
- quality reports.
- Requirements documentation.
- risk register
- risk report
Accepted Deliverables
Accepted deliverables may include detailed approved product specifications, delivery confirmations, and records of work performed. For projects that are being phased out or have been canceled, partial or interim results may also be included.
Business Documents
While not limited to, the following are examples of business documents that can use in project closure phase process in project management ( PMP) :
Business case.
The business case shows why the project is necessary for the business and how much it will cost and how much it will benefit.
Benefits management plan.
The benefits management plan lists the project’s planned benefits.
The business case checks to see if the expected results from the economic feasibility study that supported the project came true. Checking the benefits management plan to see if the project delivered the benefits as planned.
Agreements
The terms and conditions of the contract and the procurement management plan usually spell out what needs to be done to officially end the procurement. For a complicated job, managing several contracts at the same time or one after the other may be necessary.
Procurement Documentation
All the documentation related to the purchase is gathered, sorted, and put away in order to finish the contract. It keeps track of every document needed for changes to the contract, payments, and inspection results, as well as information on the plan, scope, quality, and cost of the work. You should also include “as-built” plans or drawings, “as-developed” documents, manuals, troubleshooting guides, and other technical writing in the procurement papers when you finish a project. You can use this knowledge to figure out what went wrong and to judge potential contractors for future jobs.
Organizational Process Assets
Project or phase closure guidelines or requirements (for example, lessons learned, final project audits, project evaluations, product validations, acceptance criteria, contract closure, resource reallocation, team performance reviews, and knowledge transfer) are some of the organizational process assets that can affect the Close Project or Phase process. and a knowledge base for configuration management that has all of the official company standards, policies, processes, and project documents, along with their versions and baselines.
Close Project Or Phase: Tools And Techniques
Expert Judgment
You should look at the information and experience of people or groups who are experts in the following areas:
- Management control,
- Audit,
- Legal and procurement, and
- Legislation and regulations.
Data Analysis
Some examples of data analysis methods that can be used in project closure phase process in project management ( PMP) are, but are not limited to:
Document analysis
Going through the available documents will help you figure out what you learned and share that information so that you can use it to improve future projects and the organization’s assets.
Regression analysis.
This method looks at how the different factors that affected the project’s results affected each other in order to make future projects run more smoothly.
Trend analysis.
Trend analysis is a way to make sure that the organization’s models are correct and to make changes for future projects.
Variance analysis
Looking at the difference between what was planned and what happened can help the company improve its metrics.
Meetings
Meetings are used to make sure that the deliverables have been accepted, that the exit criteria have been met, that the contracts are officially over, that the stakeholders are happy, that lessons have been learned, that knowledge and information from the project has been transferred, and that success has been celebrated. Members of the project team and other people with an interest in or an impact on the project may be attendance. People can meet in person, online, in a structured setting, or informally. Close-out reporting meetings, customer wrap-up meetings, lessons learned meetings, and party meetings are just a few of the types of meetings that can happen.
Close Project Or Phase: Outputs
Project Documents Updates
After the project is over, all of the documents can be updated and marked as final. The lessons learned record is especially interesting because it is now complete and has all the necessary information for the end of a phase or project.
Benefits management, making sure the business case is correct, project and development life cycles, risk and issue management, stakeholder involvement, and other project management processes may all be in the final lessons learned register.
Final Product, Service, Or Result Transition
Once the project has delivered a product, service, or result, it may be given to another group or organization to run, manage, and help individuals throughout their lifetime.
The output is when the final product, service, or result that the project was supposed to make moves from one team to another. If a phase is ending, the output is the final product, service, or result of that phase.
Final Report
The final report gives an overview of how the project went. It can have things on it like:
- In a few words, describe the project or phase.
- There should be quality goals, criteria for judging the quality of the project and the result, as well as dates for checking and delivering milestones and explanations for any differences.
- Objectives for the scope, the standards that were used for assessing it, and proof that the standards for success were met.
- Cost objectives, including the range of acceptable costs, real costs, and the reasons for any differences
- The validation information for the end product, service, or result is summed up here.
- Include in the schedule objectives, such as checking to see if the results met the project’s goals for rewards. If the benefits aren’t met by the end of the project, describe how well they were met and give an estimate for when they will be met in the future.
Organizational Process Asset Updates
Some examples of improved organizational process assets are the following, but not all of them:
Project documents.
The project’s activities’ documents, like the project management plan, scope, cost, schedule, and project calendars, as well as the documentation for change management.
Operational and support documents
The project delivered documents that a company needs to keep up, run, and support the product or service. These could be brand-new documents or changes to documents that already exist.
Project or phase closure documents
Phase or project closure documents are official records that show the end of the phase or project and the handoff of the finished deliverables to someone else, like an operations group or the next phase. During project closure, the project manager looks over the paperwork from earlier phases, the customer acceptance documentation from the Validate Scope process, and the agreement (if there is one) to make sure that all project requirements have been met before the project is officially closed. For projects that were canceled before they were finished, the official paperwork explains why the project was canceled and spells out how the finished and unfinished project’s products will be given to other people.
Lessons learned repository
It is possible for future projects to use the lessons learned archive to store the information and lessons learned from this project that finalized in closing phase in project management .
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