The Fifth Phase of Project Management: Closure
Throughout the fall, we’ve walked through the phases of project management and talked about how:
Initiation sets the stage and aligns stakeholders.
Planning turns intention into structure and shared understanding.
Execution brings the project’s goals to life.
Monitoring and Control keeps delivery steady and transparent.
But now the project’s done!
You’re holding the deliverable in your hands, watching it perform the way it was designed to, and handing it over to the people it was built for. Surely this means it’s time to close your laptop, take a vacation day or five, and roll right into the next big priority.
Or is it?
When a project reaches completion, it’s tempting to just be done with it. After all, we’re builders. We’re creators. We like making things. But there’s one phase left, and skipping it is one of the fastest ways to undermine the next project before it even begins:
Closure.
A healthy Closure phase focuses on three core elements:
Did we do what we said we were going to do?
Did the project cost what we expected?
Did we deliver when we said we would?
Does the final deliverable match the scope, intent, and quality envisioned during Initiation and Planning?
What did we learn along the way?
What surprises did we encounter?
What came up during retrospectives or post-mortems? Can you identify any themes?
Did we capture those lessons in a lessons learned register so future teams don’t repeat the same mistakes or miss the same opportunities?
Did we celebrate the accomplishment?
Were individual team members recognized? The team as a whole?
Did people have a moment to breathe and appreciate what they built?
Did we acknowledge the effort, not just the output?
Here’s the secret about the Closure phase: It’s not 100% about the project you just completed. It’s about making the next project better, smoother, and more successful.
A truly effective Closure phase improves process maturity, strengthens team culture, and prepares everyone for what’s ahead.
And the project manager is the steward of this phase, which can be challenging in high-velocity environments where the next initiative is already underway before the current one is fully wrapped. But that’s exactly why Closure needs a champion.
Stoic ProjectWorks can be that champion for you and your team. We’ll:
create a concise closing report
shout out team members in your company’s chat channel
organize a lunch or a happy hour
capture and share the lessons learned
make space for reflection, recognition, and growth—even if no one is asking for it.
With Stoic ProjectWorks at the helm, your team will feel the difference and your next project will benefit from it.
Interested? Get in touch to find out more.
