Now that you have learned, realized and evaluated the Benefits derived from your project, let’s talk about the last stage, the Closing of a project. 



Project Close-out finalizes project activities completed across all phases of the project and formally close the project. It also derives any lessons learned and best practices to be applied to future projects.


Closing a project involves several steps. Work through the following list to ensure your project is successfully completed. 

  1. Formally transfer all deliverables 

  2. Confirm project completion and obtain formal sign-off (such as commission report) 

  3. Confirm project benefits 

  4. Review and close all vendor contracts and documentation 

  5. Release project resources 

  6. Conduct a post-mortem 

  7. Close project financials 

  8. Archive documentation for auditing purposes 

  9. Celebrate

 

 

Why do we need a Formal Project Closure Process? 

 

At first glance, it might seem like administration and bureaucracy . However, you risk letting crucial details fall through the crack, and even exposing the organization of governance failure if the project remains open and active.


A clear Project Closure helps: 

  • Proper acceptance, handover and transition of the solution implementation to the client or end-users.  

  • Ensuring the project does not incur further costs or liabilities. 

  • Harvesting assets and lessons learned as corporate memory for future projects. 

  • Satisfying corporate governance and compliance process.

 


Focus HQ closes projects in stages.


When moving the project from Execution to Benefits Tracking stage, this closes all delivery-related activities: 

  1. Confirm project completion and obtain formal sign-off (such as commission report) 

  2. Review and close all vendor contracts and documentation 
  3. Release project delivery resources 
  4. Conduct a post implementation review
  5. Close project financials
  6. Archive documentation for auditing purposes


When moving the project from Benefits Tracking to Closed stage, this action completes benefits tracking activities and fully closes the project: 

  1. Confirm all actual project benefits

  2. Archive benefit validation documentation for auditing purposes 

  3. Formal project closure


Once the benefits checklist is completed, the project can be submitted for Closure Review and Approval. Closed projects are fully accessible for reference, review or auditing purposes.



You can check the video below on how to go about with the Project Close-out Checklists and process. 

 


 

Feel free to explore Focus HQ Project Close-Out checklist by opening your project type setting (in the company settings) and review the Project Closure checklist.


If you have any other questions, you can reach out to us via the Focus HQ Help or send us an email to support@focushq.com.  We’ll be happy to guide you in navigating through these and provide other valuable support links when needed.