According to A Guide To The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Fifth Edition, “The Project Closing Process Group consists of those processes performed to conclude all activities across all Project Management Process Groups to formally complete the project, phase, or contractual obligations. This process group, when completed, verifies that the defined processes are completed within all of the Process Groups to close the project of phase, as appropriate, and formally establishes that the project or project phase is complete” 

In other words, Project Closing can be defined as the:- 

• Assurance that all the work has been completed.

• Assurance that all agreed upon project management processes have been executed.

• Formal recognition of the completion of a project.

Just as any of the other project management processes (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling), Project Closing serves an important purpose for the organization and helps to avoid unfavorable and adverse scenarios. When a project is not closed properly, the team’s effort, time and credibility may be negatively perceived. 

Not closing a project properly can leave the organization liable to external parties for incomplete payments on contracts, liable to customers for incomplete scope, or liable to regulators for incompliant practices and/or products. In some cases, a poor project closure can be a result of a lack of a proper handover or transition of the project deliverables to business or operations. This may lead to resources that were required to manage other future projects be consumed in post-launch activities, limiting their availability and capability to manage new projects, and hence limiting the capacity of the organization to meet its strategic objectives.

As projects would get progressively elaborated, the team members may not be exposed to the whole project until it is completed. By having a lessons-learned process, the organization would be able to capture and learn from their experiences.  The lessons learned process can be defined as the following 5 steps. 

Capturing the lessons learned allows for future growth of the organization as future project teams would be able to learn from the past lessons-learned in the lessons learned repository to avoid making the same mistakes in their project. 

To close a project effectively, a project manager can follow the guideline below provided by Project Management Institute (PMI). 

1. 1. Ensure that operations and any other departments/units/parties who will use the product of the project have the necessary training, tools, documentation and capability to perform their role. 

   2. Ensure that the project satisfies all its established strategic goals.

   3. Ensure that the scope of work has been completed and a formal documented acceptance from client or sponsor has been obtained.

   4. All parties have satisfied their contractual obligations.

   5. Review the effectiveness of the project management practices used in the project.

   6. Document the lessons learned for future reference.

   7. Disband the project team and officially return resources to their functional locations.