Closing: hand over, document, release
What you'll be able to do
Hand off the work, write down what you learned, free up the people, archive the rest.
- Closing applies to phase end, project end, contract end, and early termination.
- Outputs: accepted deliverables, lessons learned, archived docs, released resources.
- Lessons learned fund future projects via OPAs.
Closing formally completes a phase, project, or contract — including (when appropriate) terminating a project before completion. The work includes verifying that all deliverables are accepted, transitioning to operations, releasing resources, archiving documents, capturing lessons learned, and confirming that target benefits are aligned for realisation.
PMBOK 8e calls out the early-closure case explicitly. If terminating becomes the best way to maximise return (or minimise loss), Closing handles that too. Stopping is not failure if continuing would destroy more value.
Lessons learned is the most-tested artefact in Closing. It's a knowledge transfer to the organisation — what worked, what didn't, what would we change next time. It feeds the organisational process assets so future projects benefit. Closing without lessons learned is closing on autopilot, and PMI penalises that on the exam.
Key points
- Closing applies to phase end, project end, contract end, and early termination.
- Outputs: accepted deliverables, lessons learned, archived docs, released resources.
- Lessons learned fund future projects via OPAs.
- Termination is a valid Closing scenario when value is gone.
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