4. Project Integration Management (6)

4.6 Close Project or Phase
Close Project or Phase is the process of finalizing all activities across all of the Project management process groups to formally complete the project or phase.

When closing the project, Project Manager reviews all prior information from the previous phase closures to ensure that all project work is completed and that the project has met its objectives. Since project scope is measured against the project management plan, the project manager reviews the scope baseline to ensure completion before considering the project closed. Close Project or Phase process also establishes the procedures to investigate and document the reason for actions taken if a project is terminated before completion. In order to successfully achieve this, the project manager needs to engage all the proper stakeholders in the process.

Inputs
1) Project management plan: agreement between the project manager and project sponsor, defining what constitutes project completion

2) Accepted deliverables: include approved product specifications, delivery receipts and work performance documents, Partial or interim deliverables may also be included for phased or cancelled projects.

3) Organizational process assets: OPA that can influence the Close Project or Phase process incl.
- Project or phase closure guidelines or requirements (e.g. admin procedures, project audits etc.)
- Historical information and lessons learned knowledge base (e.g. project records and documents etc.)

Tools & Techniques
1) Expert judgement: applied when performing administrative closure activities, these exports ensure that project or phase closure is performed to the appropriate standards.

2) Analytical technique:examples of analytical techniques used in project closeout are
- Regression analysis
- Trend analysis

3) Meetings: may be face-to-face, virtual, formal or informal. Types of meetings include lessons learned, closeout, user group and review meetings.

Outputs
1) Final product, service or result transition: this output refers to the transition of the final product, service or result that the project was authorized to produce.

2) OPA updates: OPA that are updated as a result of the Close Project or Phase process include project files, closure documents and historical information