project closeout presentation template

Free Project Management Templates

Project Closure

The Project Closing Process group consists of the processes to formally closeout the project. Once the closing process is completed the project manager has received acceptance from the project sponsor, conducted a post-project review, performed and documented lessons learned and archived all project related documents. Our project initiation templates are created by PMI PMP certified project managers and are based on the PMBOK® Guide.

Transition-Out Plan Template

Project Acceptance Template

Post Project Review Template

Lessons Learned Template

Filter by Keywords

Project Management

Project closure: 5 step checklist to close projects (with examples).

October 4, 2023

Start using ClickUp today

• Manage all your work in one place
• Collaborate with your team
• Use ClickUp for FREE—forever

Project closure is an integral part of project management. It’s the final phase when deliverables are tested against KPIs and the scope , loose ends are tied up, lessons are learned, the handover is complete, and a project is signed off on.

In many ways, project closure is as important as a kick-off meeting and the scope of work (SOW). It’s something managers should set aside time for, to ensure that project deliverables have been completed as expected and that the project was executed successfully . 

In this post, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step process for closing a project and give you five handy templates you can use to streamline the project closure process for your team. 

What is Project Closure?

Why is project closure important, types of project closure, 1. implement completion tasks, 2. refer to the project scope or brief to ensure goals are met , 3. complete a client debrief and an internal 360-degree learning meeting , 4. ensure documentation is complete and handovers are done.

• 5. Thank everyone involved and disband the project team 

1. ClickUp Project Closure List View Template 

2. clickup project closure task view template , 3. clickup 4ls retro template , 4. clickup feedback form template , 5. clickup project handover template .

Whether a project is internal or is being delivered collaboratively by a third party, such as a software development firm or a marketing agency, it should always end with a project closure phase. 

Project closure is the final mission-critical phase in the project management life cycle. It marks the end of a project, the last key performance indicator before any deliverables can start making an impact on an organization. 

For example, if the aim is to roll out new customer relationship management software in an enterprise organization, this can take time, especially if third-party vendors or consultants are involved.

However, it’s worth taking the time necessary: Most projects (of any size) run a lot smoother when there’s project management software to keep everyone on task, focused, and on the same page. 

Effective project wrap-ups can help to define a team’s culture. Everything a team member or project lead learns from implementing and delivering a project⏤successes and failures⏤can be taken forward into future projects. 

It’s equally important to ensure that documentation, assets, and other deliverables are passed on to a client and signed off on. Otherwise, the client could say a project wasn’t completed as expected, especially if those assets were included in the contract. 

Project closure involves answering a handful of questions to ensure everything is wrapped up, including:

• Have the goals and objectives been met?
• Is the client happy with the project documentation and deliverables? 
• Was the project properly completed on time and on budget? 
• Are there takeaway lessons from any bottlenecks or mid-process problems that would be helpful for future project teams?
• Are senior leaders and managers or other stakeholders happy with the project outcomes? 
• What return on investment can be expected, or what return on investment will the client experience after closing a project? 
• For future reference—was it worth the time, effort, and money invested? 
• Now that it has been delivered, are stakeholders and staff who will use the deliverable (e.g., a new software application) aware of it and trained? 

How you answer these questions depends on whether you’re delivering a project internally or for a client. Each party will approach this project management process differently.

Project closure is important because it determines whether the project was a success or a failure and what can be learned. Too often, projects are just measured on budget and timescale standards.

There’s more to success than just numbers. Did we meet the mark on quality? Did we crush our business goals? These factors are so important if you want to knock the project out of the park.

There are several types of project closure that can be implemented depending on the specific circumstances and objectives of the project. Here are some common types:

• Normal Closure: This is the standard and most common type of project closure, where the project is completed as planned, all deliverables are produced, and all objectives and goals are achieved. The project team wraps up all remaining tasks, conducts final reviews and approvals, and formally closes the project.
• Premature Closure: If you’re using project management software, this means that you would be able to tick every action item as complete. Unfortunately, not every project closing phase ends this way. Some projects are closed before they can get off the ground. When a project is canceled as it’s about to start, it’s known as premature closure . 
• Partial Closure: Sometimes, a project may be partially closed when certain components or phases have been completed successfully, but others are still ongoing. This type of closure allows for a phased approach, where the completed parts are closed while the remaining work continues. It helps manage dependencies and prioritize resources effectively.
• Consolidation Closure: In cases where multiple related projects are being executed simultaneously, a consolidation closure may be performed. This involves consolidating the outputs, learnings, and resources from multiple projects into a single closure process. It helps ensure consistency, knowledge transfer, and efficient utilization of resources across projects.
• Suspension Closure: If a project needs to be temporarily suspended due to external factors or operational constraints, a suspension closure is performed. The project is put on hold until the circumstances allow it to resume. During the closure, the team documents the project status, resources, and any necessary actions required upon resumption.
• Failed Closure: Unfortunately, not all projects succeed. A failed closure occurs when a project is unable to achieve its objectives or deliver the desired outcomes. In such cases, the project is closed without accomplishing the intended goals. It is crucial to conduct a thorough analysis of the reasons for failure, document lessons learned, and determine any salvageable components or potential adjustments for future projects.

Now let’s dive into the steps to take when closing a project.

5 Steps to Complete the Project Closure Process

Here are five steps for project management teams to take when closing a project and getting sign-off from clients and stakeholders. 

Loose ends always need wrapping up during the final stages of any project. 

Major project deliverables will have been completed, so make sure smaller action items and goals haven’t been overlooked. This could include the following: 

• Ancillary assets and deliverables
• Project documentation and, in the case of software deliverables, product guides 
• Any training that needs delivering 
• Files and intellectual property that a client owns upon completion have been transferred
• Invoices sent and paid 
• Any other admin tasks that need doing before you can start going through the project closure process 

Now that loose ends have been wrapped up, it’s time to check back against the original scope or brief to assess whether goals have been met. 

Project success is measured against numerous criteria and key performance indicators. On a high level, most projects are assessed against a handful of core metrics: 

• Did we deliver what the client expected? 
• Was the project closing process on time and within budget? 
• Is the client happy with the quality and pleased to sign off on the deliverables? 
• Have business and operational goals and objectives been achieved? 

Providing that the management team and project management team involved can answer yes to most⏤ ideally, all⏤of these questions, then it has been a success. Achieving the objectives on one project could be useful if you’re wanting to work with the same organization again on a new project. 🛠️

That’s why a performance post-mortem and project closing process is so valuable. You can use this time to review outcomes and lessons with the client, as well as internally.

A project manager can also use this information for an internal 360-degree learning meeting so that actionable lessons can be applied to future project documents, workflows, and processes.

Team members will appreciate the feedback and direction on project performance to do even better next time around.

Debriefs are amongst the most useful parts of the closing process. A project manager should make time for two: an internal debrief, also known as a 360-degree learning meeting, and a client debrief and handover meeting. 

Aim to hold the internal meeting call or in-person session before talking to the client. This way, everyone in your project management processes are on the same page.

If anything went wrong during the project closing phase, it’s useful to know who takes ownership of the mistakes and how issues were resolved. 

Project managers need to use this time to review the entire process with the project team, from start to finish, including key milestones. 

During the 360-degree meeting, be honest with yourself and the project team. Ask yourself: 

• What went wrong?
• What went well? 
• Have project resources been used effectively? 
• How successful was the team at delivering against the project plan? 
• What have we learned? 
• What can we do better next time? 

Document the outcomes of the internal meeting so you’re more prepared for the project closing phase debrief with the client. 

Most clients will ask similar questions to those listed above. Plus, they’ll want to assess outputs and deliverables against the scope, initial brief, goals, and objectives. 

Stakeholders and senior leaders measuring project success are ultimately wanting to make sure they got what they paid for. If you want to be thorough, write all of this up into a project closure report so they can compare it against the project plan. 

PRO TIP What if a project hasn’t turned out exactly as planned? Documenting what happened and why is crucial. During a project, always log everything that happens in your project management software, record meetings and calls, and keep copies of emails in your platform too. This way clients can’t dispute invoices during the project closing process. 

Do you have a plan for the handover of a project? If so, now’s the time to kick this plan into action as part of the close-out process. If not, then a project manager should make a plan.

At this stage of the project close out, it’s often simply a case of ensuring that documents, files, and other assets are given to the client as expected. For more complicated project deliverables, such as software and apps, the end-of-the-project life cycle might involve testing, training, and debugging. 

When handing over anything from a website to software, the client needs to know how it works. Otherwise, it’s like paying for a car you can’t drive. As part of this, ensure you’ve given the client everything they need: 

• Admin-level access to the project deliverables
• Documentation and manuals 
• Training or training materials 
• Intellectual property and other assets 
• Access to ongoing support as required 

Handovers are useful for establishing long-term trust. It will be easier to land future projects knowing you’ve closed out one successfully. A project closure report can be useful to help secure the next project from the same company.

And a smooth handover results in happier clients, fewer questions post-closure, and the potential to secure ongoing work. Tick off your project closure checklist in your project documentation tool so that you know it’s done. 

5. Thank everyone involved and disband the project team  

With the client happy, the project complete, the handover done, and project documents passed on, all that’s left is to thank everyone and disband the project team. 🙌

As the project manager, make sure every team member knows how well they performed. Internalize lessons. Remember to document the process and workflow changes that you’ll want to implement on future projects. 

It’s the same for any wins, shortcuts, or new tools tried out. If you’ve found something that will help deliver future work more efficiently, then you can incorporate everything you’ve learned into workflows and processes in the future. 

Now you can reassign the team members to other projects, tasks, and clients. 

To make project management easier, we’ve put together this list of five project closure templates that are worth saving. 

5 Helpful Project Closure Templates

Templates are useful for numerous project management scenarios, workflows, and processes. They’re especially valuable when you can integrate them with project management software, such as ClickUp . 

Use this simple ClickUp Project Closure List View Template to keep track of everything. 

With a range of custom fields and statuses, you can add this template to ClickUp and make this your go-to approach for simple project closures. 

It comes equipped with different view types, such as Gantt, Board, and Timeline. So whichever way your team prefers to view and work through project timelines, it can be easily configured to your preferences. 

The ClickUp Project Closure Task View Template is like a simple project to-do list you can use in ClickUp. Use this as your project closure checklist to ensure you capture all your loose ends.

Add the template and view the whole project (or a series of subtasks) one to-do list item at a time. Tick them off as you go, simple as that — apart from doing the work, of course! 👀

For those who want to get a bit more expressive with project closure tasks, here is the ClickUp 4Ls Retro Template . 

Your team can say what they loved, longed for, loathed, and learned from a project. This template comes complete with space to go in-depth about the lessons a team learned.

It’s worth filling in the four “L”s, especially when projects are more challenging, so the team feels understood, feedback is taken by the project manager, and valuable lessons can be actioned for future work. 

The ClickUp Feedback Form Template is useful for collecting client views when a project is complete and signed off. You can use this for internal feedback and even testimonials from clients. 

Clients will usually give feedback in debriefing calls. Even if it’s negative, it’s worth getting on record so it can be integrated into learnings for the future. 

Positive feedback and testimonials are even more valuable. Publish these online with your client’s permission. Collect this feedback with ClickUp’s digital feedback template, and embed these lessons into your trusted project management tool. 

Do you need to implement a project handover but don’t know where to start?

Don’t worry if you don’t have one in your standard operating procedures. We’ve got you covered with the ClickUp Project Handover Template . 

Put all of the important details in this document for a successful handover. Include essentials like logins and links to folders, documentation, training manuals, and anything else a client is going to need post-handover. 

Keep all your projects moving and avoid costly delays or miscommunications. With ClickUp’s Project Handover Template, you have an all-in-one solution for seamless processes for every team memeber involved.

Streamline Project Closures With Project Management Software 

Templates and processes are valuable time-saving organizational tools when running through a project closure checklist and action items, such as:

• Have all tasks been completed? 
• Have all outputs and deliverables been signed off internally and by the client?
• Have we done a handover and any associated training for the client? 
• Has the project been closed out? 
• Have all project closure tasks been done and signed off by management? 

But to make this a smoother process for everyone, you need productivity software to manage the entire end-to-end project life cycle. With productivity software, the whole project team is kept on task and accountable.

If you give them access, clients can also provide their input, ideas, feedback, and resources to ensure a project is delivered and closed successfully. 

Sign up for your free ClickUp account today to take care of the entire project life cycle with one powerful software suite, making project closures an easier process for everyone. 

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

Receive the latest WriteClick Newsletter updates.

Thanks for subscribing to our blog!

Please enter a valid email

• Free training & 24-hour support
• Serious about security & privacy
• 99.99% uptime the last 12 months

Project Closure Template

What do you think of this template.

Product details

There is always an end for all endeavors. So have you just concluded a project? Or a project is nearing its completion time, and you have highlighted the significant lessons from the project? Perhaps the board of directors is asking for a rundown of the project at the point of closure? Then you have come to the right place as this project closure template offers a solution to that.

This template helps you give details of the project at the point of completion. The first three slides of the template features to text and graphical contents that can be employed to show the steps involved in closing the project. These steps are listed and explained, and the diagrams and graphical designs in fascinating colors offer a form of explanation to these points. The last slide of the template features a table that can be used to draw out lessons learned from the project and the impact of the project on customers, the company’s policy, and the society at large.

This project closure template will be a useful tool in the hands of program leads, project managers, and heads of planning committees. Although the colors employed in the template can be adapted to suit the user’s needs, it is both professional and straightforward. This makes the template usable in a large corporation, business organizations, and startups.

Related Products

Transition Plan

Now Next Later

List Template

Training Plan

Data Lake Architecture

Agile Scrum Process

Project Deliverables

Project Design

Analysis of Alternatives

Project Plan

You dont have access, please change your membership plan., great you're all signed up..., verify your account.

PowerSlides.com will email you template files that you've chosen to dowload.

Please make sure you've provided a valid email address! Sometimes, our emails can end up in your Promotions/Spam folder.

Simply, verify your account by clicking on the link in your email.

Project Closure Slide Template for PowerPoint

Present the attributes of the project closure using our Project Closure Slide Template for PowerPoint. The project closure is the last stage of the project, and it formally puts the project to an end. The project can be closed for many reasons, like transferring ownership to another team, starting a new project, or working on improvements. We have crafted this unique template for professionals to showcase the project closure details to the stakeholders. This presentation template is 100% editable and can be used with Google Slides, Keynote, and all versions of Microsoft PowerPoint. The template diagrams help professionals communicate the achievements or the project to the audience with visual clarity. 

The Project Closure Slide Template for PowerPoint contains four slides with visually appealing diagrams for project closure presentations. In the first slide, seven rectangular text boxes mention the project deliverables. Each shape has a title bar for the title and placeholder text to describe the information about the specific deliverable. In the second slide, there are four circular shapes with infographic icons to present the following project closure factors:

• Achievement 
• Agree to Closure 

A zigzag line emerges from the start point and connects with the endpoint to showcase the complete project journey. In the third diagram, two vertical columns are provided in the slide. There is a central circular shape connecting both columns. The presenters can write the inputs and outputs of the project in these columns, respectively. The last slide shows a hexagon shape with segments containing graphical icons and titles related to the project’s completion. Editable text boxes are provided in the slides so that users can explain the content details. Professionals can also change the template features based on their needs. So, if you want to make engaging project closure presentations, download this template and customize it now!

You must be logged in to download this file.

Favorite Add to Collection

Subscribe today and get immediate access to download our PowerPoint templates.

Related PowerPoint Templates

8-Stage Diagram Template for PowerPoint

4-Step Hexagon Process Diagram Template for PowerPoint

Project Overview PowerPoint Template

Key Areas of Improvement PowerPoint Template

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser.

Exclusive access to over 200,000 completely editable slides.

• Diagram Finder
• Free Templates

• Human Resources
• Project Management
• Timelines & Planning
• Health & Wellness
• Environment
• Cause & Effect
• Executive Summary
• Customer Journey
• 30 60 90 Day Plan
• Social Media
• Escalation Matrix
• Communication
• Go to Market Plan/Strategy
• Recruitment
• Pros and Cons
• Business Plan
• Risk Management
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Mental Health
• ISO Standards
• Process Diagrams
• Puzzle Diagrams
• Organizational Charts
• Arrow Diagrams
• Infographics
• Tree Diagrams
• Matrix Charts
• Stage Diagrams
• Text Boxes & Tables
• Data Driven Charts
• Flow Charts
• Square Puzzle
• Circle Puzzle
• Circular Arrows
• Circle Segments
• Matrix Table
• Pillar Diagrams
• Triangle Puzzle
• Compare Diagrams
• Ladder Diagrams
• Google Slides
• North America Maps
• United States (US) Maps
• Europe Maps
• South America Maps
• Apple Keynote
• People & Objects
• Trending Products
• PowerPoint Templates

Project Closure PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

(14 Editable Slides)

Download Now

This template is part of our Pro Plan.

Gain access to over 200,000 slides with pro plan..

Upgrade Now

Already a Pro customer? Login

Related Products

Project Management PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

(12 Editable Slides)

Project Status PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

(6 Editable Slides)

Agile Project Management PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

(13 Editable Slides)

Project Summary PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

(10 Editable Slides)

Project Initiation PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

Project Phases PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

Project Evaluation PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

Project Execution PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

The final and the last stage of any project cycle is Project Closure. This is considered to be the most crucial and important stage, and the success of your project depends hugely on this. Such imperative and critical stages in business require huge responsibility and care.

To ensure that this last phase has the whole company on the same page, a professional presentation is important. Whether dealing with suppliers, customers, or the company’s employees themselves, you need a professional slideshow.

How to use this template like a pro!

This bundle of Project Closure PPT slides the best way of delivering a slideshow on the topic. You will need this set to deliver your message effectively to the suppliers or the customers so that there is no detail left behind.

It comes with a bunch of vibrant and attractive slides. These slides are fully editable and customizable. Moreover, the set is compatible with all major platforms such as MS PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Apple Keynote. Let’s not forget that this brilliant and informative template also comes in a variety of color themes. You can choose from these colors to match well with your company’s image, the culture at your office, and the preferences of the audience as well.

Here are some unique ways in which this set can be effectively used:

Easy to read web diagrams and graphics.

The most significant benefit of using a digital aid for your business slideshow is that the visuals can act as brilliant pieces of information. Similarly, in this set, you can add web diagrams, flow charts, tables, and other informative graphics in any slide you prefer. This will be of great help to your verbal speech. Moreover, the visuals will also help maintain the attention of the audience.

Professionally designed

Many mainstream PowerPoint slides have a tacky design and do not fit well for business-level uses. Therefore, this visually appealing set is designed by experienced professionals who know what it requires in a business presentation. Thus, this is a highly reliable template that will make sure your slideshow meets the highest professional standards.

Editable, scalable graphics and slides

The graphics that the slides in this set have are fully editable customizable. Edit them, change them, or even add or remove them according to your needs.

Create compelling presentations in less time

Questions? Give us a call at (855) 912-2920

Project Closeout: 8 Steps You Need to Follow + Best Practices

Congratulations! You have successfully completed your project. It’s time to celebrate and take a well-deserved break, right? Not so fast. As satisfying as it may feel to cross that final item off your to-do list, there are still important tasks to complete before you can truly close out the project.

Project closeout is the final stage of the project management process. It involves tying up loose ends, evaluating the success of the project, and officially closing it out. This step is often overlooked or rushed through due to all the excitement of completing a project, but it is crucial for ensuring the overall success and future improvements of your team’s projects.

In this blog, we will go over 8 steps to effectively close out your project, talk about the consequences of not properly closing out a project, and go over some project closure best practices.

What is the Project Closeout Phase?

Project closeout is the final phase in the project lifecycle, involving a series of tasks to wrap up the project formally. It’s the moment when the project team ensures that all aspects of the project are complete, objectives met, and everything is in place for operational handover. Think of it as the grand finale of a concert where every note needs to resonate perfectly to leave a lasting impression.If you want to learn more about the different phases within a project, check out our blog on project lifecycle phases .

Why is Project Closeout Important?

The importance of a structured project closure cannot be overstated. It’s an opportunity to reflect on project performance, consolidate learnings, release project resources, and, most importantly, recognize the efforts of your project team. Effective project closure ensures that the project delivers its intended benefits and provides valuable insights for future projects.

8 Steps for Effective Project Closure

Now that you know what project closure is and why it’s important, let’s take a closer look at the steps involved in an effective project closure.

1. Validate Original Deliverables

The validation of original deliverables is the first and perhaps most critical step in the project closure process. This involves a thorough comparison of the final project deliverables against the initial objectives and client requirements. It’s a time for the project team to ensure that every output precisely matches or exceeds the expectations set at the project’s inception. This validation not only confirms the project’s success but also sets the tone for project acceptance. It’s a collaborative effort requiring input from all stakeholders to affirm that the project outcomes fulfill their needs and the problem statement the project aimed to address.

2. Conduct Final Testing

Before project deliverables can be handed over or deployed, they must undergo rigorous testing to ensure their quality and functionality. This step is crucial for identifying and rectifying any defects or issues that could impede the deliverable’s performance in a real-world environment. Final testing encompasses various forms, including user acceptance testing (UAT), performance testing, and security testing, depending on the project’s nature. The goal is to guarantee that any product, software, or outcome is not just complete but is also ready for smooth operation, thereby safeguarding the project’s integrity and the stakeholders’ investment.

3. Tie Up Loose Ends

Even with meticulous planning and execution, there often remain tasks or issues that need to be addressed before a project can truly be considered complete. Tying up loose ends may involve finalizing minor adjustments, resolving outstanding issues, or completing tasks that were deferred during the project’s lifecycle. This step ensures that the project closure doesn’t leave any ambiguity or unfinished business that could lead to problems down the line, ensuring a clean slate for the project team and stakeholders.

4. Complete Administrative Duties

The administrative wrap-up is a pivotal step that involves finalizing all project-related paperwork and ensuring that all contractual and financial obligations have been met. This includes closing out timesheets, finalizing budgets, completing expense reports, and ensuring all contractual documents are signed and archived. It’s a step that, while often seen as bureaucratic, is essential for preventing future legal or financial complications and for maintaining a clear record for future reference and audit purposes.

5. Inform the Team about the Next Steps

Project closure is also a time of transition for the project team members, who may be moving on to other projects or roles within the organization. Communicating the next steps involves informing the team about demobilization procedures, their roles and responsibilities post-project, and how the skills and experiences they’ve gained can be applied to future projects. This not only helps in the smooth transition of team members but also ensures that they feel valued and recognized for their contributions.

6. Update Stakeholders and Deliver the Final Report

Maintaining transparency with stakeholders throughout the project is crucial, and the project closure phase is no exception. Updating stakeholders and delivering a comprehensive project closure report provides an overview of the project outcomes, performance against objectives, and any lessons learned. This report serves as a formal closure document, cementing the project’s achievements and learnings. It also plays a vital role in maintaining stakeholder trust and can be instrumental in securing future support and resources for upcoming projects.

7. Facilitate Post-Mortem Meeting

A post-mortem meeting, or project retrospective, is an opportunity for the project team to gather and reflect on the project’s successes and challenges. It’s a candid discussion aimed at identifying what worked well, what didn’t, and why. This step is fundamental in cultivating a culture of continuous improvement, allowing team members to share feedback and insights that can inform future projects. The lessons learned from this meeting should be documented and shared across the organization to enhance project management processes and decision-making.

8. Develop Improvement Roadmap

Armed with the knowledge and insights gained from the project and the post-mortem meeting, the final step is to develop an improvement roadmap. This roadmap outlines specific actions and initiatives aimed at addressing the challenges identified during the project and leveraging the successes. It serves as a strategic plan for enhancing processes, tools, and methodologies for future projects. By systematically planning for improvement, organizations can ensure that each project builds on the learnings of its predecessors, leading to more efficient, effective, and successful project outcomes in the future.

Each step in the project closure process is interlinked, contributing to a comprehensive closure that not only marks the end of a project but also sets a solid foundation for future endeavors. By following these eight steps, project managers and their teams can ensure that every project closure is a testament to their hard work, dedication, and continuous improvement ethos.

Consequences of Incomplete Project Closure

The consequences of incomplete project closure can have far-reaching impacts on an organization, going beyond mere project timelines and budgets. Let’s delve deeper into some of these consequences, including the ones you’ve identified:

The Perpetual Project

A project without a formal closure can become a “Perpetual Project,” one that seemingly never ends. This scenario often arises when project objectives are not clearly met or when residual tasks continue to accumulate without formal acknowledgment or resolution. Such projects drain resources, both in terms of time and budget, and can significantly demoralize the project team. The perpetual project becomes a black hole of effort and resources, diverting attention from new or ongoing initiatives that could offer more value to the organization.

The Orphan Product

Projects that conclude without a proper handover result in “Orphan Products.” These are outcomes or deliverables that, while completed, lack ownership for ongoing maintenance, support, or integration into business-as-usual operations. Orphan products can lead to operational inefficiencies, as there is no clear accountability for their success or failure in the real-world context. This can also result in wasted opportunities for the organization to leverage project outcomes effectively.

The Documentation Void

Inadequate project closure often leads to a “Documentation Void,” where critical project documents, insights, and learnings are not properly archived or are incomplete. This absence of comprehensive documentation hampers future projects from building on past successes or avoiding previous mistakes. The lack of a project closure report, including detailed post-mortem analysis, means that valuable lessons learned are not captured or shared, making it more likely for the same issues to reoccur in future projects.

Missed Opportunities for Recognition and Growth

A key component of project closure is acknowledging the hard work of the project team and individual contributions. Incomplete project closure can lead to missed opportunities for recognizing team efforts and individual achievements. This oversight can impact team morale and motivation, affecting not only the current project team’s performance but also their willingness to engage fully in future projects. Furthermore, without a formal closure, the opportunity for constructive feedback and personal growth is lost, stunting professional development and organizational improvement.

Risk of Organizational Liability

One of the most significant risks associated with incomplete project closeout is potential legal liability for the organization. In many industries, contracts and agreements are a crucial part of doing business, and failing to fulfill these obligations can result in breaches of contract or even lawsuits. This is especially true for projects involving external clients or partners where deliverables, timelines, and budgets are contractually defined.

Incomplete project closure can also damage a company’s reputation and credibility. If a client or partner feels that their expectations have not been met due to lack of proper project closure, they may spread negative word-of-mouth or leave bad reviews online. This can severely impact future business opportunities and partnerships.

Moreover, certain industries are subject to regulatory requirements that dictate how projects must be conducted, documented, and closed. Failure to adhere to these regulations during the project closure phase can result in legal action against the organization, penalties, or even the revocation of licenses to operate.

Project Closeout Best Practices

Adopting some best practices for project closeout can help ensure a smooth and successful conclusion to any project. These practices include:

Use Project Lifecycle Software

To ensure a smooth and efficient closeout process, project lifecycle software should be utilized. This allows for easy tracking of tasks and deliverables, as well as communication among team members. Additionally, it provides a platform for storing all project documentation and facilitating collaboration between stakeholders. Depending on the type of industry you work in and the specific needs of your project, it is a good idea how to optimize the project life cycle with software that is specifically designed for your field. For example, a construction project manager may be using Deltek Vantagepoint to optimize the project lifecycle , while software development teams may opt for Jira.

Implement Phase-Gate Reviews

Phase-gate reviews are systematic checkpoints at various stages of the project lifecycle, including the project closeout phase. These reviews ensure that the project meets predefined criteria before moving on to the next phase. Implementing phase-gate reviews as part of the closeout process allows for a formal evaluation of all project aspects, ensuring that deliverables meet quality standards, objectives are achieved, and stakeholders’ expectations are fulfilled. It also facilitates the identification of lessons learned and best practices for future projects.

Archive Project Documentation

One of the key aspects of an efficient closeout process is having all project documentation readily available and easily accessible. With project lifecycle software , this can be easily achieved by archiving all important documents in a centralized location. This not only makes it easier for team members to access the necessary information but also ensures that all project documents are organized and up-to-date.

Get Feedback From Your Team

Another important step in the closeout process is getting feedback from your team members. This allows you to gather insights on what went well and where improvements can be made for future projects. Your team works on different areas of the project and may have new, different, or refreshing takes on how the project was executed and what can be improved upon.

The closeout process is also a time to celebrate successes. Take the time to recognize and thank your team members for their hard work and dedication throughout the project. This can boost morale and motivation, as well as foster a positive team dynamic. It’s also important to acknowledge any challenges or obstacles that were overcome during the project and highlight how they were successfully resolved. This not only celebrates the team’s accomplishments but also provides valuable lessons learned for future projects. You can even consider implementing a recognition tradition within your project closeout. After all, 92% of workers feel valued in companies with recognition programs in place.

Closing Thoughts

The project closing phase is a crucial step in any project and should not be overlooked or rushed. It allows for reflection, evaluation, and celebration of the team’s hard work and achievements. By following these steps and incorporating them into your project management process, you can ensure a successful closeout that sets your team up for future success.

Remember to always communicate effectively with stakeholders, thoroughly review all deliverables, tie up any loose ends, and take the time to celebrate together as a team. With a well-executed closeout process, you can confidently hand over the completed project to your client or organization knowing that it was completed with excellence and efficiency.

Frequently Asked Questions 

How do i know when a project is done.

A project is considered complete when all deliverables have been submitted and approved by the client or organization. This includes any final reports, presentations, or products that were outlined in the project plan. It is important to carefully review the project scope and ensure that all agreed-upon tasks and goals have been met before considering it complete.

What is a project closeout checklist?

A project closeout checklist is a detailed list that guides the project team through the final tasks required to formally close a project. It serves as a comprehensive tool to ensure no critical steps are missed during the closeout phase. Key components of a project closeout checklist include reviewing project documentation, finalizing any outstanding contracts or agreements, conducting a post-project evaluation, and obtaining client sign-off. This checklist helps project managers and their teams tie up loose ends, assess project success, and officially mark the end of a project.

Why is a project closeout checklist important?

A project closeout checklist is crucial for ensuring that all tasks and goals outlined in the project plan have been completed. It serves as a final quality control measure to ensure that the deliverables meet the client’s expectations and any remaining issues are addressed before closing the project. Additionally, it provides an opportunity for reflection and evaluation of the project, allowing for lessons learned to be applied to future projects. A thorough closeout process can also help maintain positive relationships with clients by demonstrating professionalism and attention to detail.

What is the project closure summary?

The project closure summary is a comprehensive document that encapsulates the entirety of the project’s journey from initiation to completion. It serves as a final report that provides a high-level overview of the project, including its successes, challenges, performance metrics, and the lessons learned throughout its lifecycle. The project closure summary is a critical component of the project closeout process and serves as a reference for future projects and for stakeholders who want to understand the project’s outcomes.

The project closure summary is essential because it provides a clear understanding of the project’s performance and outcomes. It highlights key achievements, challenges, and lessons learned, all of which are valuable information for future projects. It also serves as a record of the project’s success or failure, which can be used for accountability purposes or to improve processes in future endeavors.

Additionally, the project closure summary helps ensure that all critical steps have been completed during the closeout phase. It serves as a final check to ensure that all documentation has been reviewed, contracts have been finalized, and all project deliverables have been completed and accepted by stakeholders.

What is the most important phase in the project lifecycle?

The most important phase in the project lifecycle is arguably the project initiation phase . This is because it sets the tone for the entire project. However, each step in the project lifecycle is important in itself and no step should be overlooked or ignored.  

Table of Contents

Related posts.

Overhead in Construction Explained + 7 Ways to Avoid It

Top 10 Architecture KPIs to Improve Project Profitability

How to Increase Project Profitability: 6 Tips Your Firm Can Implement Today

Or call us: 855-652-9049

Evaluating deltek vision or vantagepoint, see deltek vantagepoint for yourself－download the deltek vantagepoint product guide.

Successful Project Closeout: The Comprehensive Guide

What project closeout is, why it's important, and how to execute it well

March 10, 2021

10 min read

Edward Gonzalez

Founder at Buildr

“Project closeout is my favorite phase of construction,” said nobody, at any point, in the history of mankind.

It’s the phase we’d rather not speak of, let alone think about, which is why it’s usually left for the last possible moment. General Contractors must juggle subcontractor follow-up, file and folder organization, Excel sheet accuracy, and turnover package design and building, on top of a myriad of other non-closeout-related duties.

Of course, the GC's juggling act is further compounded with multiple projects concurrently in the pipeline. The more projects in progress, the more pressure there is on accuracy and organization. To call project closeout a nightmare wouldn’t do it justice, and we haven’t even taken into account the time constraints and profit margin percentage points riding on not only executing, but executing well.

Looking at findings from Construction Financial Management Association and McKinsey & Company , a general contractor’s profit margin ranges between 1% and 5% per project before interest and taxes. It should go without saying that such a tight margin dictates microscopic room for error.

By the end of this guide, our hope is that you’ll come away with a couple lessons learned while becoming newly equipped with a gameplan to take on closeout headfirst. Who knows, you might even downgrade it from “nightmare” to “slightly unpleasant dream.”

Before we attack the how , it’d be best to first unpack the what and why .

What is Project Closeout?

Project closeout is the final construction phase of the project lifecycle. It is the collecting of final project documents (sometimes referred to as project deliverables), assembling them into a package, and ultimately presenting that package to the client that requested the project be built. It is also defined as the length of time between substantial completion and the general contractor receiving final payment.

An analysis of 39 projects by MSU found that the average length of closeout was 284 days and final payment to internal closeout was another 247 days for a whopping total average of 531 days. They cite that while seemingly lengthy, these averages are comparable industry-wide for a similar project scope.

A Project Engineer with one of our partners, a General Contractor in the ENR Top 10, explained that their team's closeouts on a 3-year project prior to using Buildr took around a year and a half, with the last 2-3 months "spilling over beyond substantial completion."

Construction project delays are an industry-wide norm, which factors heavily into the length of time it takes for the GC's team to close. Overlong projects coat the runway of document collection and assembly in molasses. Inefficiencies and stoppages beget more paperwork; more paperwork begets a more complicated closeout.

Collection, assembly, and presentation are the three peaks of a mountain climbed by a select few. Successful project closeout isn’t just about executing, but executing well. One must climb the mountain and do it without breaking a sweat. We’ll cover why a bit later.

Document collection

The collection of project deliverables is the first step of closeout.

It’s not as simple as a teacher waiting at the front of the classroom for students to pass in their quizzes. The complexity of a project’s document collection is relative to the project scope. The larger the project, the more facilities there are, and ultimately the more construction documents there are to collect.

Email is the construction industry’s preferred medium of document collection for project closeout. It’s light years more efficient than, say, physical interaction (“I’m going to go collect George’s O&M manual today. Off I go!”), less immediate than a phone call, and more conventional than an IG story tag (hats off to the innovation).

The person tasked with closeout—we’ll call them the Project Manager from here on out—emails every subcontractor that worked on the project with a polite request for the documents that they’re responsible for. Then begins the waiting game.

Once initial document requests are sent, the Project Manager’s diligent organization is paramount. Subcontractors are not incentivized for timely responses. It’s possible, if not likely, that they’re already on to future projects by now. Additionally, subs may need to reach out to members of their teams for documents. The Project Manager is clueless about what’s going on, now two levels above the collecting process (with the GC above them and the owner above them ). It’s like an administrative, really boring version of Inception .

The PM must anticipate that 100% of requested documents aren’t going to magically appear in their inbox that afternoon, and formulate a timed strategy for follow-up. A single construction document can take weeks to months to obtain, especially if they require edits. Aside from follow-up, the PM must keep a running project closeout checklist and a space where documents are neatly and descriptively stored.

Assembly of the handover package

It’s that neat and descriptive storage that will provide the launchpad for the Project Manager’s next project closeout peak to climb: assembly.

Once all required documents are in the PM’s possession, they’ll organize them into one cumulative project closeout document, usually referred to as a “handover document,” “handover package," "closeout package," or “turnover package.” Usually a myriad of nicknames implies affection (see also: Shaquille O'Neal), but not this time. The handover package is what will eventually be given to the client. It must be comprehensive, accessible, and without redundancies. Coffee stains are also frowned upon.

Assembly of the handover package takes time and a little bit of graphic design savvy. The project manager has documents of all shapes and sizes that must be categorized and edited together coherently and aesthetically. File sizes must be adjusted individually so that the package as a whole isn’t too bulky—in the physical and digital sense. It’s not uncommon for digital handover packages to be multiple gigabytes large, and for printed handover packages to be a dozen or so 3-ring binders tall.

Presentation to the client

Upon completion of assembly, the final step of project closeout is presenting the handover package to the client. Between General Contractor and client, this is the proverbial “tossing the keys to the sports car.” At long last, the GC’s job is over, and the client can rest assured that the handover package contains all information critical to the continued maintenance of their spanking new facility.

Of course, presenting a package that both satisfies and impresses the client takes a certain skill that now evolves past administrational or graphic design—an ultra-high stakes version of customer service. This is the most important skill of all for one simple reason: giving the client what they want, on top of being available for questions they may have about their new facility, helps to build a better relationship and ensure repeat business between GC and Owner.

Successful project closeout is rare

Truly successful closeout doesn’t happen often, for two primary reasons: too many variables and a lack of project resources. Both can be readily overcome by the contractor that’s ready to take their business to the next level.

Too many variables

Time and cost overruns are extremely common for projects—31% of all projects came within 10% of the budget in the last 3 years according to a report by KPMG . Uncontrollable variables include stoppages, accidents—and of course, we can now include worldwide pandemics. The onset of COVID-19 was an abrupt and cruel reminder of how little control we have.

Perhaps a project team becomes too focused on their current project, and their dedication to properly closing out the last one falters. Maybe some documents are misplaced or incorrect, or it simply takes too long to receive construction documents from every subcontractor.

In a survey of COAA Conference attendees , closeout for projects ranging from $25 million to over $1 billion were examined and projects that took 12 months to complete averaged around a 10-12 month closeout, with one respondent noting, “it takes [us] 2-3 years to closeout a $10 million project.”

A lack of resources

By sheer manpower standards, the construction industry is woefully understaffed. The AGC reported that 80% of contractors struggle to fill positions and there were upwards of 239,000 unfilled positions last year per the Bureau of Labor Statistics . The AGC also suggested most contractors are boosting pay for their crews to incentivize work on the tasks of those they haven’t been able to hire.

The GC might conduct closeout entirely by themselves, or task one or two others to do it. When a project manager has an Excel spreadsheet, a printer, and a thousand other non-closeout-related things on their to-do list, successful closure is difficult to pull off.

From that same COAA survey , 4 of the top 8 organizational factors for slow closure were internal process friction (said 84% of respondents), personnel skill level (78%), inadequate manpower (74% of respondents) and inadequate records (59%). Surveyed contractors noted “a lack of project resources” as the number one reason for slow project closeout.

Why successful project closeout is important

Successful closeout is defined by timeliness and execution. Only when work has been completed, final retainage is released and the general contractor can be paid. This incentivizes the General Contractor to closeout as soon as possible, at occasionally the cost of a thoroughly exceptional process.

A wise GC understands the benefit of bridging timeliness with execution, however, as it is the sound execution of closeout that defines a GC’s personal brand and reputation. Getting paid sooner than later is crucial, but not as crucial as overdelivering to the client and ensuring a better reputation, more money, and ultimately more clients.

Considering how tight profit margins are— per KREO , “Construction profit margins of 1.5% to 2% are normal” and “unlikely to reach 5%”—a general contractor’s closeout success is symbiotic with their overall business success. Profit margins are tied to productivity, and unfortunately the construction industry finds itself stagnant for the past two decades in that area.

Handover is the final touchpoint between client and GC and the last chance to make an impression that leads to repeat business. A solid gameplan from the start extinguishes potential future excuses. With modern technology options , successful project closeout that culminates in an impressive handover package can be conducted at any budget with a strategy that circumvents any drought of resources or plethora of variables.

Historically, the construction industry has performed almost dead last in terms of technology adoption. McKinsey & Company lists construction second to last in digitization of the twenty-two major industries, only in front of Agriculture and hunting. Believe it or not, this is great news for General Contractors who are eager to transform their businesses. Odds are that your competitors aren’t thinking this way, meaning that more of the available profit pool is up for grabs.

How to do Project Closeout: A Detailed Plan and Template

Let’s take a look at four steps that are vital to successful project closeout:

Gameplanning from day one,

Determining client handover requirements,

Configuring a logical workflow, and

Delivering a clean and accessible handover package

Following these steps will not only accelerate closeout and get your project team members paid sooner, but also help execute the handover process to bolster your brand and reputation, ultimately strengthening client relationships and ensuring repeat business.

Think of this plan as a sort of template you can follow to pave a safer path through a particularly treacherous woods. If you have to, imagine the woods from The Blair Witch Project , scary epitaphs dangling from branches and all, except there’s a nice, friendly cement path with water fountains every 50 yards.

Step 1: Gameplanning from Day One

As discussed, a delayed start to project closeout creates complications that make success more difficult than it has to be. Postponing until post-construction creates an added pressure that would not have been there had project closeout been started earlier, namely document requests and following up with subcontractors that are already onto their next projects (not to mention, your project team members onto your next project).

Based on the aforementioned COAA survey , the number one effective strategy proposed by respondents was “consider closeout early, even at the pre-construction stage.”

Implementing a solid gameplan from the very first day on a project (or sooner), and most importantly getting all of your project team members on the same page with your expectations, will save your future self headaches and money not spent on Advil. A divide between jobsite and office isn't inevitable—be proactive and bridge communication and rapport on day one.

Bonus tip: play the soundtrack from Friday Night Lights in the background during your “We’re all in this together,” speech.

Step 2: Determine project handover requirements

Closeout is meaningless if you don’t adhere to the project handover requirements that your client specifically wants. These requirements will vary depending on the type and scale of the project (be it commercial, industrial, residential, retail, office, etc.), the types of technology used during construction, and the complexity of the facilities within the project itself.

Common requirements include punch list items, as-built drawings, O&M manuals, warranties, change order and claim resolutions, and RFIs. O&M (Operations & Maintenance) manuals are vital to your client. They explain procedures for every individual device or system that is built as a small part of the larger project. They’ll include handy and relevant details the client will always need including manufacturer, model number, drawings, safety tips, product life expectancy, and replacement info. Leaving the O&Ms out of your turnover package would be like leaving the M&Ms out of M&M cookies.

Step 3: Configure a streamlined workflow

Once you’ve bridged the goals of jobsite and office teams and determined project requirements, the next step is streamlining workflow where possible.

Many general contractors maintain an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of a project. If you choose this route, make sure it’s synced with Dropbox or some other cloud service to be safe. GCs who’d rather dedicate their man hours elsewhere use software that automatically keeps track of requirements on top of acting as a portal for subcontractors to upload documents.

If your projects are small enough or your team is used to manual project closeout, create a master folder on your computer (again, be sure to cloud sync) that’ll serve as the holding place for all incoming project documents. Label files and subfolders as clearly and succinctly as possible. Rather than waiting till later when file transfer becomes a code-red emergency , convert and shrink file sizes as documents trickle in. Proactive practices like these will make the eventual turnover package assembly less of a pain. Again, GCs who’d prefer against micromanaging conversion and metadata use software that does it for them automatically .

One last workflow streamlining strategy is to maintain and edit a project handover template in real time rather than saving it for whenever you’ve finally obtained every last pesky document. Anticipate claims, disputes, and change orders and the time they’ll inevitably vacuum up. Whether you’re building a massive hyperlinked PDF or a massive stack of 3-ring binders, it’s massively important that you chip away at this undertaking in pieces so that it’s not as overwhelming.

Step 4: Deliver a clean and accessible handover package

The key word here is “accessible.”

For truly successful handover, a General Contractor will want to deliver a closeout package that their client can actually use . The only good that a stack of 3-ring binders does is collect dust in a closet and keep the ink cartridge industry alive and well. A handover PDF is a bit more practical, though for larger projects can be the digital version of the 3-ring binder stack (the dust-collecting, also digital). It’s nice to have, but it can slow down hardware and sometimes be more trouble than it’s worth to open.

In either case, preventive maintenance and warranty issues usually result in the client perusing the turnover package for all of 2.4 seconds before giving the GC a call. Some General Contractors anticipate this result and opt to index and archive final project documents, providing their clients with a portable, lightweight project handover template . The resulting package is searchable, consistent across all future projects, and doubles as a portal to submit and report on warranty claims .

Based on KPMG’s survey of 300 senior leaders in the industry, 70% admitted that their company didn’t have integrated systems or project reporting whatsoever. Don’t let all the data you collect float off into space—give it to your client. This sort of overdelivery not only gives them tangible control over their facility for years to come, it strengthens your brand's trust in a manner that helps ensure repeat business with your client.

FMI's 2020 report Trust Matters: The High Cost of Poor Trust notes that high trust firms are "the most enthusiastic about taking on repeat work with collaborators across the construction ecosystem," while only 37% of construction professionals rated their organization as "a high trust firm." Trust is built when promises are kept. When promises are over-delivered on, well, now we're talking!

Project Closeout, Automated

If there’s one thing to take away from all of this, it’s that project closeout is a climbable mountain. With the wrong strategy and mindset, it can be lengthy, tiresome, and discouraging; all this work could very well result in a turnover package that nobody will ever read. Rejoice in the fact that your competitors similarly feel this way, which means it’s the perfect opportunity to stand apart.

Start strategizing from day one—your future self will thank you, and so will your client. Variables on future projects are inevitable, but with the right gameplan they won’t prove toxic to your workflow. If you’d like to accelerate your closeout, get paid sooner, improve your profit margins, and deliver a clean and accessible handover package that’ll knock your client’s socks off, look no further than Buildr .

Stay in the loop

Seriously, you should sign up to be a construction insider. Everyone will be so jealous of you.

• Project management

A step-by-step guide to creating a flawless project closure report

Georgina Guthrie

November 02, 2022

We talk a lot about first impressions — but not so much is said about last impressions. But the fact is, they matter just as much as introductions . 

Endings are important. Consider the gymnast finishing their set with a showstopping move. An orchestra finishing a piece with fanfare. A fireworks display that saves the best for last. Endings are your last chance to make an impression and drive home what you want your audience to remember. 

As a project manager, you know that closing a project is just as important as starting it, and a well-crafted project closure report can help you do just that. It can also be a valuable resource for future projects and help your team and stakeholders feel positive about what you’ve accomplished together. So, let’s take a look at what a closure report is and what you should include in it.

What is a project closure report?

A project closure report is a document that summarizes the results of a project. It includes the team’s accomplishments, lessons learned, and recommendations for improving upon future projects. Closure reports are typically created at the end of a project, but you can also use them to summarize the results of interim project milestones .

A project closure report typically includes the following information:

• A brief project overview, including objectives and goals
• A description of the team’s accomplishments
• A discussion of lessons learned
• Recommendations for future projects

Why create a project closure report?

A closure report is helpful for future projects, as you can refer back to previous reports to see what worked well and what didn’t.

Evaluating your results also encourages you to reflect on the project and identify areas that are ripe for improvement. By taking the time to create this handy little document, you can ensure that future projects are even more successful than previous ones. 

Finally, a closure report is a way of formally wrapping up a project. It shows your client or sponsor that you’re taking the time to assess team performance and you’re committed to continuous improvement .

What happens if you don’t have a closure report?

If you don’t have a closure report, it can be difficult to track the results of your project. This, in turn, makes it tricky to spot areas for improvement. It can also make it more challenging to replicate the successful elements of previous projects.

Without a closure report, you also miss out on an opportunity to show your project sponsor or client that you’re taking the time to assess the project and its results. This can reflect poorly on you as a project manager and may damage your relationship with clients. 

What should I include in a project closure checklist?

A project closure checklist should include all of the following items:

• A brief overview of the original project requirements, including the project scope , objectives, and goals
• A description of what you accomplished during the project
• Lessons learned and client feedback
• Proof that you fulfilled all deliverables and objectives (with confirmation from the client)
• Payment details, including any outstanding fees to/from suppliers or vendors
• A performance review for all sections of the project
• A folder(s) containing all project documents and communications
• Confirmation of transfers of any resources/items
• Offboarding documentation for any project-specific contractors or freelancers

When should you begin a closure report?

Ideally, you should begin work on your closure report as soon as you’ve completed the project. This helps you keep all the relevant information fresh in your mind. It’ll also make it easier to track down any documentation you need before it’s filed away, deleted, or lost.

Top tip: use a project management tool that lets you archive files to avoid this happening!

If you’re working on a large project, consider creating interim closure reports. This can be helpful in documenting the results of specific milestones, and it’ll be easier to create a final report at the project’s end.

How do you write a closure report?

Writing a closure report is relatively straightforward. Here are the steps you’ll need to follow:

• Arrange a project post-mortem .
• Briefly summarize the project and its objectives.
• Describe what the team accomplished during the project.
• Discuss any lessons learned during the project .
• Make recommendations for future projects.
• Thank your team and sponsors.
• Close with a strong statement.
• Publish your report.

Let’s dig into these in a little more detail…

1. Arrange a post-mortem

Before you begin writing your closure report, it’s important to arrange a post-mortem meeting with your team. This gives everyone a chance to debrief and discuss the project, and it helps you identify any lessons learned.

A post-mortem meeting should be structured and focused. Begin by asking everyone to briefly share their thoughts on the project, and then move on to discussing specific elements of the project.

Some questions you may want to ask include:

• What went well?
• What didn’t go well?
• What could we have done differently?
• What did we learn?

This will help you identify areas for improvement and give you some insight into what went well.

2. Briefly summarize the project and its objectives

The next step in writing your closure report is to provide a brief overview of the project. This should include information on the project objectives and goals, including a vision statement if you have one. Keep this section short and to the point; you can provide more details later on.

3. Describe what the team accomplished during the project

This is your opportunity to discuss any successes or challenges you encountered along the way. Be sure to back up your claims with data wherever possible. Refer back to your KPIs , project schedule, and other documents to support your statements.

There are several metrics that will help you support your claims of project success:

• On time: was the project completed on schedule? If not, why not?
• On budget: did the project stay within budget ? If not, why not? You’ll need to compare project costs with your project baseline to work this out.
• To spec: did the project meet its objectives and goals? If not, why not?
• Stakeholder satisfaction: were the project’s stakeholders happy with the final result?
• Quality: was the project delivered to a high standard? If not, why not?

If you’re using project management software (which we highly recommend!), then you can simply pull reports and graphs to include. Not only does this make your job easier, but it also provides hard evidence to back up your claims. 

4. Discuss any lessons learned during the project

This is your opportunity to reflect on what went well — or didn’t go so well —during the project. Be honest in your assessment, and use this section to identify any areas for improvement. This could be anything from process improvements to changes in team communication.

Consider making this section a 360 review, where everyone receives feedback, from the juniors to the managers. And be sure to open and end on a positive note, so people start in a good mindset, reflect productively, and leave feeling inspired. 

5. Make recommendations for future projects

Based on what you’ve learned during the project, what would you do differently next time? These recommendations could include changes to the project management process or specific actions you should take (or avoid) on future projects. And once you’re done, make this document accessible so that the whole team can read it and reflect. 

6. Thank your team and sponsors

Be sure to thank everyone who contributed to the project, including your team members, contractors, and stakeholders . A simple “thank you” can go a long way in building goodwill and ensuring continued support for future projects.

7. Close with a strong statement

End your report on a positive note, highlighting the successes of the project and thanking everyone involved. 

This is your opportunity to really sell the project to stakeholders, so make it count! A good closing statement should reiterate the main points of the report while also showing gratitude to everyone who helped make the project a success. It should be well-written, edited, and proofread before publication. 

8. Publish your report

Once you’re happy with your report, it’s time to publish it. Depending on your company’s process, this could mean sending it to your project sponsor or stakeholders, sharing it with the project team, or posting it on an internal company website or intranet.

If you’re using project management software, you can simply generate a PDF of your report and send it out to interested parties. Or, grant them access, so they can log in and refer to it anytime.

Creating a project closure report: tips and best practices

If you’re using a closure report template, be sure to tailor it to your specific project. Don’t simply copy and paste information from the template. This will make your report less helpful and may even damage your credibility as a project manager.

When writing your closure report, be sure to:

• Use clear and concise language. Remember that not everyone involved in the project will be familiar with technical jargon. Use simple, accessible language that everyone can understand. This is no time for showing off your poetic turn of phrase and impressive vocabulary! 
• Be objective . A project closure report is not the place to air your personal grievances. Stick to the facts, and avoid making value judgments. If you do need to include negative feedback, be sure to balance it out with positive feedback as well. And always back it up with data to remove any subjectivity; this is about facts, not opinions. 
• Use evidence. As we mentioned before, be sure to back up your claims with evidence. This could be anything from project reports and graphs to customer satisfaction surveys.
• Be positive. The goal of a closure report is to show that the project was a success. Even if there were some bumps along the way, focus on the positive outcomes of the project.
• Share it. A well-written report can help improve communication between the team and sponsors, and it can provide a snapshot of the project’s progress for anyone who’s interested.
• Keep it updated. A closure report is a living document, and as new information comes to light, you may need to update it. Be sure to keep stakeholders in the loop, and let them know when there are changes.
• Use collaboration tools. Project management software is a must-have when it comes to setting off on a new project. Be sure to use one that offers archiving, document sharing, automatic notifications, Gantt charts , task assignments, and other tracking tools so that the project runs smoothly and everyone stays in the loop. By the time you finish the project, you’ll have all the data you need to create a comprehensive report at your fingertips. 

Final thoughts

A well-written project closure report can be a valuable tool for both project managers and stakeholders. By taking the time to reflect on the successes and lessons learned during a project, you can ensure future projects are even more successful than the last.

Working agreements are a powerful teamwork tool. Here’s why

Everything you need to know to create a winning business case

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Learn with Nulab to bring your best ideas to life

Newly Launched - AI Presentation Maker

• Customer Favourites

Project Closeout

AI PPT Maker

Powerpoint Templates

Icon Bundle

Kpi Dashboard

Professional

Business Plans

Swot Analysis

Gantt Chart

Business Proposal

Marketing Plan

Project Management

Business Case

Business Model

Cyber Security

Business PPT

Digital Marketing

Digital Transformation

Human Resources

Product Management

Artificial Intelligence

Company Profile

Acknowledgement PPT

PPT Presentation

Reports Brochures

One Page Pitch

Interview PPT

All Categories

• You're currently reading page 1

Stages // require(['jquery'], function ($) { $(document).ready(function () { //removes paginator if items are less than selected items per page var paginator = $("#limiter :selected").text(); var itemsPerPage = parseInt(paginator); var itemsCount = $(".products.list.items.product-items.sli_container").children().length; if (itemsCount ? ’Stages’ here means the number of divisions or graphic elements in the slide. For example, if you want a 4 piece puzzle slide, you can search for the word ‘puzzles’ and then select 4 ‘Stages’ here. We have categorized all our content according to the number of ‘Stages’ to make it easier for you to refine the results.

Category // require(['jquery'], function ($) { $(document).ready(function () { //removes paginator if items are less than selected items per page var paginator = $("#limiter :selected").text(); var itemsperpage = parseint(paginator); var itemscount = $(".products.list.items.product-items.sli_container").children().length; if (itemscount.

• Business Slides (406)
• Circular (19)
• Cluster (6)
• Complete Decks (12)
• Concepts 1 (6)
• Diagrams (388)

• Contact sales

Start free trial

5 Steps to Project Closure (Checklist Included)

So much time and effort is put into the planning of a project, it is often forgotten that the end of a project—project closure—is equally important. There’s a lot of work involved even once a project is technically complete.

For example, there are many tasks that you still must complete. They might be procedural, but that doesn’t make them any less important. There are approvals, signatures, payments, all of which might seem like pushing paperwork to you, but tell that to the team member waiting to get paid.

Not to mention, when you are ending one project, you’re likely planning another. Therefore, you want to get transition support for this changeover. You’ll have to release resources, archive documents and don’t forget to acknowledge the project success with a party or some type of celebration. That’s important, too.

What Is Project Closure?

Project closure is the last phase of a project. It’s when the project manager verifies that the client, stakeholder or customer has accepted the project deliverables. If the project or product is ongoing after the project, then maintenance must be set up.

Get your free

Project Closure Template

Use this free Project Closure Template for Word to manage your projects better.

The project manager will also review the entire project before closing it, rating performance and comparing that to the baseline . The project team will be part of this process, offering their observations and feedback, which is collected in a lesson’s learned document. This provides guidance for future projects.

The importance of project closure is more than just signing off on all documentation, fulfilling any contracts with vendors and releasing the team to participate in other projects. It makes sure that the original objectives of the project have been met and ties up any loose ends, such as risk or issues that have remained open.

Free Project Closure Template

Start your project closure process out on the right foot with this template. Everything you need to capture when closing a project is outlined in our free project closure template for Word . You can make sure stakeholders have signed off on every document, contractors have been paid and their contracts closed and your team has been released from the project, so they can get started on the next one.

Steps to Closing a Project

The close of the project is the final phase of your job, it’s the last turn of the project life cycle , and like any other aspect of a project, it requires a process. The following are five steps you should take to make sure you’ve dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s, as well as taken full advantage of the experience.

1. Evaluate Your Project

Managing a project isn’t only about tasks and resources, budget and deadlines, it’s an experience you can constantly learn from. While you should have been learning throughout the project, now is a great time to look back without the pressure and distractions that might have dulled your focus.

Gather the core team to invite feedback about what worked, and what didn’t. Encourage honesty during the project evaluation process . By documenting the mistakes and the successes of the project, you’re building a catalog that offers historic data. You can go back and look over the information for precedents when planning for new projects.

Projects are never standalone things, but part of a continuum, where the specifics might vary, but the general methods usually remain the same. There’s a wealth of knowledge produced after any project closes. For example, you should conduct a post-implementation review to determine whether your project met its objectives and what things could be done better when managing future projects.

2. Complete Paperwork

As noted, projects generate reams of documents. These documents are going to have to get sign off and approval from stakeholders . Everything needs attention and must be signed for, which is the legal proof that in fact these documents have concluded. That includes closing all contracts you might have made with internal partners or vendors or any other resources you contracted with.

This includes addressing all outstanding payments. You want to make sure that all invoices, commissions, fees, bonus, what have you, are paid. Complete all the costs involved with the project. It’s not done if it’s not paid for.

Project management software can help you organize all these documents. ProjectManager acts like a hub for all your project files. You can track them on our list view, which is more than the usual to-do list app. For one thing, you can see the percentage complete for each item on the list. Now you know if that contractor has been paid and whether you can sign off on the contract. You can even set up notifications to make sure your payments are delivered on time. Try it out for yourself with this free trial.

3. Release Resources

You assemble a team for the project, and now you must cut them loose. It’s a formal process, and a crucial one, which frees them for the next project. Each team is brought together for the mix of skills and experience they bring to a project. The project determines the team members you’ll want to work with, and each project is going to be a little bit different, which will be reflected in the team hired to execute it.

This is true for internal as well as external resources. The external ones might be more obvious, as you contracted with them, and that contract is going to have a duration. When it’s over, make sure they’re all paid in full so they can sign off and leave. But internal resources remain, so you have to remind yourself that their time on the project is also limited, and you might be blocking other team’s projects if you don’t release your resources once the project is done.

4. Archive Documents

There are lessons to be learned from old projects, which is why you meet with your team regularly during the project and look back on the process afterwards. However, if you don’t have an archive in which to pull the old records, then whatever knowledge you gain is lost because of poor organization and management. You worked hard to have great project documentation, don’t lose it.

Related: What Is a Project Decision Log?

Before you close a project, archive all the documents and any notes and data that could prove useful. Even if you never access it, there’s a need to keep a paper trail of the work done on any project for other people in the organization. This might include legal teams, or HR teams, or even your successor. You never know when someone might have to go back and respond to a question or want to learn how an old issue was resolved. Consider it like putting away provisions for the winter.

5. Celebrate Success

If it sounds silly to you, then you’re not doing your job. There’s nothing silly about rewarding your team to acknowledge a job well done. It creates closure, which is what this part of the project is all about, but it also plants a seed that will bloom in later projects when you work with members of the old team.

Before we dive into a checklist of steps that need to be taken to close a project, let’s first hear some expert advice on this project phase. In the video below, Jennifer Bridges, professional project manager (PMP) explains the basics of project closure.

Project Closure Checklist

To make sure you close your project properly, follow this step-by-step project closure checklist.

• Start at the beginning with the project scope document you created and make sure that you’ve met all the requirements listed there.
• Make sure that all deliverables have been handed off and signed by stakeholders, getting their approval and satisfaction.
• Other project documents must also be signed by the appropriate person, this includes any outstanding contracts and agreements with vendors and other contractors.
• Once documents are signed off on, then process them and pay off all invoices and close out any project-related contracts.
• Add all documents together, including finalizing all project reports, then organize and archive them as historical data to be used for future reference.
• Use collected paperwork to identify and document the lessons learned over the course of the project, including any feedback from stakeholders, so you don’t make the same mistakes in future projects.
• Assign a transition support person to shepherd the project after completion so that the project closure is thorough.
• Release or reassign the project resources, which includes your team and other project personnel and any equipment or site rentals used for the project.
• If you’ve not used a project management software , get one, as it helps control not only the life cycle of the project but also the process of closing the project thoroughly.
• Finally, but perhaps most importantly, celebrate with your project team. They did the work and deserve credit and an opportunity to blow off steam until the next project is started.

More Free Templates to Help with Project Closure

There’s a lot to keep track of when you’re closing a project. You don’t want to miss out on any critical steps and leave some documents unsigned or not discussing lessons learned to avoid the same mistakes on the next project. ProjectManager is a great software but also the premiere online site for everything project management. That includes dozens of free templates. Here are some to help you do all the little things necessary for proper project closure.

Lessons Learned Template

There’s a lot of administrative work required to shut down a project, but it should also be a time of reflection. Our free lessons learned template for Excel is a great tool to capture the wins and issues that have come up over the course of the project life cycle. You describe what happened, how it impacted the project and what you will do differently in future projects to avoid repeating those mistakes. It’s a classic project closure document.

Action Items Template

The free action items template for Excel is a great place to take the lessons learned that you collected in the above template and turn them into a plan. Once you see the mistakes you made in the past you can formulate an action plan in order not to repeat them. This free template lets you create tasks, assign them to team members, add priority so you know which goes first and even provide deadlines and track the status.

Project Review Template

This free project review template for Word allows you to evaluate different areas of your project such as risks, resources, baselines and much more. It’s ideal for sharing with internal and external project stakeholders.

Your Project is Closed – Use ProjectManager For Your Next One!

Now we know that proper project closure will help you start your next project on the right foot. If you plan and manage your projects in a centralized project management software—like ProjectManager —you’ll have access to all of your previous projects.

That way, when you’re planning a new project, you can quickly review old documents, tasks, comments and templates in the system. It makes onboarding for the next project simpler too, as the team members should already be in the system.

Create Reports for Posterity

Automated reporting software can be a huge help during this process. ProjectManager lets managers create reports with just one click. This includes reports like timesheet reports, so you can quickly see the hours worked by a team member over the life of the project. You can also create more stakeholder-specific reports, like status reports, variance reports or project plan reports. It’s all automated in our project management software, helping you reach the end of the project even faster.

Saving time and having a head start when you begin a new project is how you effectively cut time and costs. ProjectManager streamlines the project for you from start to finish.

Related Project Closure Content

The project closure stage is a very important step in the project life cycle because it’s when the project team and stakeholders will determine how successful the project was by closely inspecting the deliverables and ensuring whether the success criteria was met. Here are some blogs, templates and guides that can be helpful during this project phase.

• What Is Post-Implementation Review in Project Management?
• Project Evaluation Process: Definition, Methods & Steps
• 10 Steps for Successful Project Completion (Templates Included)

Part of closing a project is being able to plan and execute it. That’s where ProjectManager comes in. As cloud-based software, it enables you and your team to get real-time data when monitoring and reporting on the project. Plus, your documentation is more accessible and secure. See for yourself, by taking this free 30-day trial.

Deliver your projects on time and on budget

Start planning your projects.

• Product overview
• All features
• Latest feature release
• App integrations

CAPABILITIES

• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Capacity planning
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• asana-intelligence icon Asana AI
• list icon Starter
• premium icon Advanced
• briefcase icon Enterprise
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Campaign management
• Creative production
• Content calendars
• Marketing strategic planning
• Resource planning
• Project intake
• Product launches
• Employee onboarding
• View all uses arrow-right icon
• Project plans
• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• Customer stories See how the world's best organizations drive work innovation with Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Support Need help? Contact the Asana support team
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.

Featured Reads

• Strategic planning |

Project closure template

Projects aren’t done when your last deliverable is complete—you still need to tie up loose ends, communicate your results, and debrief with your team. Create a project closure template to help your team check these boxes and finish projects with confidence.

Sign up to create your own template.

INTEGRATED FEATURES

Recommended apps.

These key steps are easy to overlook in the afterglow of a successful project. But with a project closure template, your team can tie up loose ends without missing a beat. 

What is a project closure template? 

A project closure template is a pre-built guide that lays out all the steps required to successfully complete projects. This template gives your team a roadmap to follow for every initiative, ensuring everyone checks key boxes like performing final tests, finalizing the project budget, and sending a final report to stakeholders. 

Creating a template takes a bit of up-front effort, but it can save your team time and effort down the road. Instead of starting from scratch at the end of every project, you can just copy the template, fill it out, and move on. 

The benefits of a digital project closure template 

The project closure process involves a lot of moving pieces, from securing approvals to performing final tests. With so much to track, a static project closure template can quickly become outdated—requiring constant updates to keep stakeholders in the loop about what’s going on. 

Creating a digital project closure template means you can spend less time updating Excel trackers and more time doing important work. Your template lives in the same place work happens—so instead of switching back and forth between different tools, your entire team has a single source of truth to track the status of work. 

With a digital project closure template, you can: 

Help your whole team follow the same project closure process for every initiative.

See the real-time status of project closure assignments.

Track approvals, milestones, and tasks in one place.

Avoid jumping between different communication tools.

Easily share your project closure process with stakeholders. 

Avoid creating a separate project closure report or project closure checklist.

Visualize your project closure process as a timeline, Kanban board , list, or calendar.

Attach key project documents directly to tasks—like your project charter or project overview.

What to include in your project closure template

Your project closure template should lay out all the steps required to successfully wrap up an initiative. Every team is different, but you can generally divide project closure tasks into these four buckets:  

Admin tasks: Logistical steps like reviewing your project plan , finalizing your project budget and project baseline , updating documentation, and hosting a project post-mortem meeting. 

Testing plan: The steps you’ll take to measure and share results after your project is launched. For example, you may want to measure results after a week or a month. 

Project sign-offs: Approvals required to confirm that you’ve completed your project and it meets the required specifications. 

Handoffs: Follow-up project deliverables and leftover action items you need to assign after your project is finished. 

In your template, create a separate section for each of these four buckets. To fill in the tasks within each section, imagine what an ideal project closure process looks like for your team. What logistical tasks should you complete to make sure all loose ends are tied up? How are you going to test and share results? Who needs to sign off on your projects, and what leftover tasks need to be assigned to someone else? 

To provide an extra layer of detail, create custom fields to track the status of each task (like “not started,” “in progress,” or “completed”). You can also create milestones to track key project accomplishments and use Asana’s approvals feature to make it easy for stakeholders to approve project completion with the click of a button. 

As you create your template, remember that you don’t have to finalize every detail. You can always add and adjust tasks later to fit each future project. 

Integrated features

Timeline View . Timeline View is a Gantt-style project view that displays all of your tasks in a horizontal bar chart. Not only can you see each task’s start and end date, but you can also see dependencies between tasks. With Timeline View, you can easily track how the pieces of your plan fit together. Plus, when you can see all of your work in one place, it’s easy to identify and address dependency conflicts before they start, so you can hit all of your goals on schedule.

Approvals . Sometimes you don’t just need to complete a task—you need to know if a deliverable is approved or not. Approvals are a special type of task in Asana with options to “Approve,” “Request changes,” or “Reject” the task. That way, task owners get clear instructions on what actions they should take and whether their work has been approved or not.

Milestones . Milestones represent important project checkpoints. By setting milestones throughout your project, you can let your team members and project stakeholders know how you’re pacing towards your goal. Use milestones as a chance to celebrate the little wins on the path towards the big project goal. 

Custom fields . Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization.

Google Workplace . Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

Salesforce . Remove bottlenecks by enabling sales, customer success, and service teams to communicate directly with their support teams in Asana. Share attachments and create actionable, trackable tasks for pre-sales needs. With Service Cloud, connect your implementation and service teams with supporting teams in Asana to deliver amazing customer experiences.

Hubspot . Create Asana tasks automatically using HubSpot Workflows. With HubSpot Workflows, you can use all the customer data in HubSpot CRM to create automated processes. This integration enables you to seamlessly hand off work between teams, for example, when deals or tickets close in HubSpot.

Jira . Create interactive, connected workflows between technical and business teams to increase visibility around the product development process in real time—all without leaving Asana. Streamline project collaboration and hand offs. Quickly create Jira issues from within Asana so that work passes seamlessly between business and technical teams at the right time.

Do I need a project closure template? .css-i4fobf{-webkit-transition:-webkit-transform 200ms ease-in-out;transition:transform 200ms ease-in-out;-webkit-transform:rotateZ(0);-moz-transform:rotateZ(0);-ms-transform:rotateZ(0);transform:rotateZ(0);}

If you regularly manage projects, a project closure template can help you standardize the final stage of each initiative and ensure you’re not missing any critical steps. Often, the long-term success of a project depends on how well you manage hand-offs and document your learnings. With a well-planned project closure template, you can build these requirements into your team’s standard project management process.

Do I need a digital project closure template?

Creating a project closure template means you don’t have to write up a separate project closure document. Instead, your template is all you need to give stakeholders visibility into the completion of the project.

When should I create a project closure template?

Even though you use a project closure template at the end of a project lifecycle, it’s best to create your template at the start of a project. That way, you can plan key details in advance—like which project sponsors need to sign off on work and which metrics you’ll use to measure project performance.

Who should I share my project closure template with?

As a manager, you can share your project closure template with all of your team members in order to help them follow a standardized closure process for every initiative. In addition, project managers can share their template with the entire project team to give everyone full visibility into this final phase of the project.

Related templates

Action plan template

Taking action has never been easier. Learn how to create a reusable action plan template in Asana to take the guesswork out of strategic planning.

Marketing strategy

A marketing strategy template is a useful tool that helps your marketing team achieve their goals. Learn how to create your marketing strategy with Asana.

PEST analysis

A PEST analysis template helps compile info on the external environment affecting your business. Learn how to prevent risk with a PEST analysis template.

Objectives and key results (OKR) template

Learn how to create an OKR template in Asana so you can standardize the goal-setting process for everyone.

Cost benefit analysis template

Digital cost benefit analysis templates are a useful framework to see if a new project or idea is viable. Learn how to create your own in a few simple steps, with Asana.

Nonprofit business plan template

Success doesn’t just happen—it’s planned. Stay focused on your most crucial work with a custom nonprofit business plan template.

Contingency plan

Using a contingency plan template will help you create well-developed strategies to help you protect your business from potential risk. Learn how Asana can help.

Requirements traceability matrix

A requirements traceability matrix template is a tool to help organize project requirements in a concise manner. Learn how to create one for your team.

Creating a digital punch list template can help streamline the final bits of a project for your team. Here’s how to create one.

Go-to-market strategy template

Simplify your GTM strategy with a go-to-market strategy template that aligns teams and keeps work on track. Learn how in Asana.

Project reporting

Stay on top of your project’s performance. Keep everyone on the same page about what’s been completed and where your project is headed.

Product roadmap

What if you could create, share, and update your product roadmap in one place? Everyone could see you’re tackling the right priorities. Start planning your product roadmap with this template.

Program roadmap

Create a program roadmap template and know the exact structure of each program, how they operate, and their future plans—company-wide.

Operational plan template

Learn how Asana’s operations team uses standardized processes to streamline strategic planning—no matter how many stakeholders are involved.

Strategic planning template

When you’re launching a new product, team, or even a new business, strategic planning templates keep you laser-focused and on task.

Annual planning template

Set clear goals and streamline your planning process—so every level of your company is aligned on what’s important.

Competitive analysis template

The more you know about your competitors, the better your strategy will be. Competitive analysis templates use a data-driven approach to see exactly how your business, products, and features compare to your competition.

Crisis management plan

Does your team know what to do during a crisis? Using a crisis management plan template can help keep all your employees on the same page.

Business plan

A business plan is the first step to start your business and secure financing. Use our business plan template so you don’t have to start from scratch.

SIPOC template

Use your SIPOC template to ensure that the processes outlined in your SIPOC diagrams are consistent and up to your standards.

Create templates with Asana

Learn how to create a customizable template in Asana. Get started today.

• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Pinterest
• Share through Email

Project Closure: 3 Simplified Phases You Should Know [+ Checklist]

Patrice Embry of Project Menagerie is a freelance digital project manager and Certified Scrum Master. After 25 years in the field, she has been fortunate to work for agencies, corporations, and everything in between. Her clients have spanned far and wide across verticals: pharmaceutical, finance, construction, ecommerce, race cars, you name it. Her client roster includes LeBron James, ExxonMobil, Merck HCP Education, Lundbeck Pharma, ACLU, Anti-Defamation League, GS1, SEI Investments, Hamline University, and many more.

Here's a three phase project closure process that will help you tie off loose ends, keep your files in order, and document learnings from the project that you can take forward into future projects.

Without a proper project closure process, projects can exist in a state of limbo where nobody's really sure if any more work is being done.

Project closure is not simple (but you already know this). It takes time—you shouldn’t attempt to compress the whole process into a day—and it unfolds in many ways, including through project post mortems, lessons learned, retrospectives, wrap-ups, and project de-briefings.

What Is Project Closure?

The project closure phase is the last phase in the project life cycle , and it officially puts an end to a project. The entire project management closure process requires meetings and communication with your team and stakeholders, a handful of project documents, and analysis skills.

When the project closing phase is completed properly, your project documents will be finalized, your clients and stakeholders will have any final reports that they require, and your team will have had the chance to reflect upon and adjust their processes and workflows.

Why Is Project Closure Important?

It’s so tempting to just move to the next thing after a project launches.  The extra time and energy to do even more work seem daunting, but it’s really in your best interest as a project manager to close it officially.

• You show your team (and your boss) that you are competent and professional.
• You’ll probably glean at least 2 things (usually more) that you can take with you to future projects to make them more successful.
• You minimize the chance of problems resurfacing on this project down the road and slowing you down.
• You create the opportunity for your team to tweak their process and structure before moving onto the next project.
• You’ll end up with a final project closure report that helps you make updates to your portfolios, processes, and assets.

If you don’t close a project properly, you might set yourself and your company up for some tough situations.

For example:

• Ever had a client come to you well after a project is over complaining that items were not completed?
• Have you ever realized after launch that some critical component of the product was missed?
• Do you see your team carrying the same recurring issues onto new projects?

It is definitely in your best interest to have a project closure procedure in place so that you cover every base and safely archive it in your project management software .

When Should I Begin The Project Closure Process?

You should begin the project closing process after the following have been completed:

• Your team has done QA and performed testing on the project deliverables
• You’ve delivered the project, and the client has reviewed and approved it
• The thing you’ve delivered is live

If you don’t have the budget for the type of project wrap up I cover in this article, it’s always helpful if there’s a billing bucket for overhead per client so you can still show that you’re doing work for them while not adding hours to the project budget.

If you don’t have the option to bill to overhead, admin, or any other non-billable bucket , try to ensure that you have time built-in at the beginning of the project to cover project closure.  If you get to the end of the project and there’s no way to account for the hours needed to follow all of the closure steps, prioritize what will be most helpful to you, the team, and your company.

3 Phase Project Closure Process

I’ll cover each phase of project closure in detail below. Click any link to jump to that section.

Phase 1:  Loose Ends and Formalities

• Start smoke testing
• Check for missed items and things you left hanging
• Technical update: documents, contracts, and payment

Phase 2: Learning, Feedback, and Review

• Write a note to your team with team wrap-up plan
• Close the project with your client
• Hold a retrospective, lessons learned meeting, post-mortem

Phase 3:  Final Phase: Last Look and Moving Forward

• Put together a final project report
• Create a roadmap
• Update your credentials

Phase 1: Loose Ends and Formalities

1. start smoke testing.

Goal: Make sure the project is stable.

a. Refresh and check the live product to ensure stability

The first thing to do when a project goes live is to make sure that it is properly live. You’ll be amazed how often a seemingly straightforward deployment from staging to production goes wrong.

Once you have checked the live product, keep checking. Set up a check every few hours post-launch to make sure everything is still running smoothly. Even if it deployed properly, the first 24-48 hours can unleash a torrent of unexpected issues, and you don’t want to be blindsided.

• Set up an hourly live product check
• Check the analytics for warning signs
• Monitor product traffic
• Check the server health

b. Create a checklist of things likely to be affected during the deployment

Create a checklist of details that are likely to be affected during the transition from stage version and live version. It’s often small configuration snags that cause problems between staging and live.

Focus on features that are (1) critical to product function, (2) the selling point of the product, or (3) most commonly needed by users.

• List key features
• List vulnerable features
• List any features you’ve had problems with in the past

c. Have the team retest major features and functionality

Now that you have a list of top priority features, it’s time to start retesting them. Sure, you’ve tested them all before but the landscape changes drastically post-launch. You now have active users, live servers, and myriad other changes to contend with. 

Technology is never foolproof; small things that no one can explain can go wrong. Those things are what retesting catches.

• Divide key features amongst the team
• Test each feature
• Report the results
• Address any issues

d. Monitor social media channels for issues

If the end product is high profile, make sure someone is monitoring social channels for issues. End users will frequently post complaints or comments on social and you want to catch these as soon as possible.

You will need to take a “PR” approach here and address the social/reputational issues as just as important as any technical issues.

• Monitor the product’s Facebook and Twitter feeds
• Set up a Google Alert for the product
• Respond promptly to all issues

e. Make sure you’ve set up Pingdom

You want to be alerted as soon as there is any sign of trouble. Pingdom will monitor the performance and availability of service on an ongoing basis.

You need to continue to smoke test well after the project has gone live, and as part of that, do regression testing to ensure that your project’s deployment hasn’t adversely impacted anything else.

• Set-up a Pingdom account
• Link your product
• Monitor status

Back to the Project Closure Process menu

2. Check for missed items and things you left hanging

Goal: Tie up all loose ends.

a. As you work, set up a notification for “missed” items

Knowing your priorities is vital for keeping things on schedule. Sometimes that means skipping over less vital tasks until you have time for them later.

You never want these items to go completely forgotten, though. It’s helpful to archive these delayed “to-dos” in a way that helps you remember them later, at a more convenient time, potentially using task management software .

• Establish an alert system for delayed tasks
• Set-up notifications for postponed items
• Check on items during downtimes
• Go over all items after launch

b. Comb over your plan and timeline for forgotten items

Go over every inch of your plan and timeline and look for any item you forgot about. Sometimes, when the heat is really on during a project and you are just trying to get to the finish line, you can accidentally skip things. Mistakes happen, even for the most organized PM.

• Gather timeline and plan documents
• Catalogue forgotten items
• Discuss items with your team

Sign up to get weekly insights, tips, and other helpful content from digital project management experts.

• Your email *
• Yes, I want to sign up to receive regular emails filled with tips, expert insights, and more to build my PM practice.
• By submitting you agree to receive occasional emails and acknowledge our Privacy Policy . You can unsubscribe at any time. Protected by reCAPTCHA; Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
• Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

c. Address any forgotten items with your client

You’ve combed over the timeline, the task lists, and the plans and found a few things that were missed. At this point, transparency is absolutely key. Be honest with your team and your client about what was missed. And remember not to panic—if it were critical it likely would have come up in QA or UAT.

• Present any missed items to the client
• Receive feedback on next steps
• Outline which items to tackle first

d. Decide whether additions are in scope or out of scope

Any remaining items in your scope statement should be incorporated when the right time comes—sometime before launch or with a plan to update after launch that the client has signed off on.

Out of scope items make a lovely email to the client as you close out the project and will score points with your business development team since they can be sold as updates.

• Sort leftover items as in scope or out
• Develop a plan to address each in scope item
• Email client out of scope items
• Review OoS items for updates

3. Technical update on documents, contracts, and payment

Goal: Make sure the project is closed properly from an administrative perspective.

a. Check everyone has their files in the right place

Check that everyone has put their files on the server or document management system and that the files and folders are in order. You should have a clear organizational pattern established long before the project gets started.

• Develop organization/filing best practices
• Distribute organizational expectations to the team
• Do a surprise check (or two) to ensure that orders are followed

b. Ensure final versions are clearly labeled

Create archives for old files and ensure final versions are clearly labeled. You should be doing this as you go but now it’s time to dive in and make sure everything is as it should be.

• Determine final versions of files, products, or items
• Determine the standard labeling system
• Label all final versions accordingly

c. Check that code is commented on and checked in

Keeping the team Wiki up-to-date is for the benefit of your future self. You’ll appreciate this in 6 months when you save hours of trawling through the server when a client asks you for a random PSD file that your designer has totally forgotten about.

• Ensure the team Wiki is up-to-date
• Ask your team to have code commented and checked in
• Review Wiki for obvious knowledge gaps

d. Collect organizational process assets

This step will have you checking assets like product validations, acceptance criteria, contract closure, team performance appraisals, and so on. It can be a bit of a doozy so make sure to tag in your team where needed.

• Collect product validations
• Collect acceptance criteria
• Collect contract closure
• Collect team performance appraisals
• Collect all other process assets

e. Go through your assumption log

As a project manager, you have most likely developed an assumption log throughout the project management life cycle. An assumption is something assumed to be true during the project planning stages. As you go, you will track the validity of each one.

• Read through your assumption log
• Pull out any interesting information
• Generate a statement about what was learned

f. Go through estimates to see if you were correct

The goal is always to come close to what you predicted before the start of the project in terms of time and cost.

Now, at the end of the project, it’s time to find out the reality of the situation. Don’t panic—it’s quite common for project estimates to not be 100% accurate. In this stage, you can start to ask: “Why”?

• Check estimates for budget/cost
• Check estimates for time/hours worked
• Check estimates for a finish date
• Check any other appropriate estimates

g. Review the change log

Every project goes through a series of expected or unexpected changes. As things change, it’s good practice to keep track of them all—when they happened, why they happened, and what was the result. This, your change log, is a useful document that you will want to go back through come the project’s end.

• Go over your change log
• Check for missed items
• Report to team

h. Review your issues log

Issues will arise throughout the project management process—that’s inevitable. As they pop up, you and your team are responsible for tracking them. Most teams use an issue log for this purpose, though the exact organization of said log is entirely up to you. Project closure is a good time to check this log.

• Pull together issue log(s)
• Check each issue item
• Address any missed items with your team

i. Check your risks report for unresolved risks

Like changes and issues, risks are also something that arise and are logged as you progress through the life cycle of a project. And, like the above two items, project closure is a time to go over risk reports and make sure nothing was forgotten about or skipped over.

• Pull together risk report(s)
• Check each documented risk
• Address any leftover risks with your team

j. Scope document check

Your scope documents outline the size and limitations of the project. You want to make sure that all requirements were met.

The closure phase of the project is the perfect time to address scope documents and assess project performance and whether it was a successful project.

• Gather your project scope documents
• Assess the predicted scope vs actual scope
• Discuss the results with your team

k. Do your deliverables check

Project management hinges on deliverables. What tangible or intangible goods or services are your clients expecting? What tangible or intangible goods or services were delivered? Hopefully, the answers to these two questions align. Now is the time to prove it.

• Check that deliverables and outputs are handed off
• Check that deliverables have been signed by project stakeholders
• Check for all deliverable approvals and sign offs

l. Make sure all project documents are signed

If there are any outstanding contracts and agreements with vendors, contractors, and so on, now is the time to reach out to concerned parties and get every signature and date stamp you need.

• Gather all project documents
• Check documents for missing signatures
• Reach out for needed signatures

m. Ensure the proper process for all contract closure has been completed

The project has come to a close, and with that, all contracts must be closed out as well. All the suppliers, subcontractors , donors, and others that you have worked with will thank you for your thoroughness. Additionally, you can ensure that everyone reviewed and accepted all contracted deliverables.

• Check that supplier contracts are closed out
• Check that subcontractor contracts are closed out
• Check that donor contracts are closed out
• Check that any other contracts are closed out

n. Ensure proper etiquette for financial closure

Financial documents and assets will need to be taken care of now that the project is in its final stages. Move assets, reassign project resources or personnel, or complete anything else required for the financial closure of the project.

• Check fulfillment of payment received
• Check the status of receivables/advances
• Liquidate/transfer receivables to another project number/accounting code
• Check all payables have been paid

o. Check the status of all administrative closure for project completion

Administration clean-up. You have assets that need to move, be reassigned, completed, archived. This is a big clean-up task that will happen at the end of any project. Here, you’ll address personnel, equipment, documents, and archives—ensure everything is sorted post-project.

• Check that personnel have been released or reassigned
• Check that equipment has been sold or transferred, if needed
• Check that all documents and reports are complete
• Check that all archives and files are up-to-date

p. Update project documents and update records to reflect the final results

Everything is finished, and now it’s time to change all of your files and documents to reflect this. Record any final results, including the state of the fully-live product and any final results attached to the launch.

• Catalog documents and records that might need attention
• Update all records according to final results

q. Gather legal proof that these documents have concluded

Your documents state that everything has been finalized and that all parties are satisfied with the results. But that doesn’t mean much if you don’t have evidence to back it up, should an issue or doubt arise later on.

• Catalog your final results and confirmed deliverables
• Collect proof for each result/deliverable
• Ensure the client signs off on each item

r. Ensure all outstanding payments are sent in a timely manner

Outstanding payments can really come back to bite you. No one likes getting calls from a creditor or angry vendor because an invoice slipped between the cracks. Project closure is a good time to sit down and sift through all invoices, commissions, fees, bonuses, and make sure that everything is paid.

• Check your accounting system for outstanding invoices
• Calculate any outstanding commissions
• Calculate any outstanding bonuses
• File all invoices to accounting for payment
• Ask for proof of payment, as needed

s. Archive documents and all information for future reference

You learned so much over the course of a project’s life cycle and you sure don’t want that valuable information to be forgotten or go to waste just because the project is complete.

In this stage, you will be dealing with collecting project and phase records, managing the transfer of knowledge, and identifying lessons learned (LL).

• Collect all project, phase, and milestone records
• Design a system for knowledge transfer
• Document lessons learned
• Share lessons with your team

4. Write a note to your team with team wrap-up plan

Goal: Succinctly explain to your team the closure plan.

a. Mention something specifically for each team member

Sure, you can copy-and-paste a generic “hurrah, we’ve made it” email into Gmail and hit send. But your team is going to feel that it’s inauthentic, and they’re right. Instead, focus on something each member of the team did really well and commend them for it. Make the closure email specific and thoughtful.

• Pick out something each team member did well
• Draft these specifics into the closure email

b. Explain what needs to happen next, if anything

Did you notice any errors, missing items, or needed follow-ups during your project clean up? You will want to write these into the closure email and explain the “next steps” for how each is going to be addressed.

• Outline anything missed
• Outline the next steps for your team

c. Tell your team about any closing events

In this section of the message of an email, you will have a chance to do a bit of a retrospective and outline any lessons that can be taken away from the project. Don’t forget to sprinkle in a bit of no-strings-attached celebration!

• Draft a project retrospective or post mortem
• Draft lessons learned
• Draft celebratory text
• Finalize closure message

5. Close the project with your client

Goal: Fill your client in on anything outstanding and all things finished.

a. Let them know about any lingering issues

In the above flurry of steps, you may have encountered issues or items that needed to be further addressed, dismissed, or otherwise dealt with. As the project wraps up, you are going to need to convey this information to your client. Fill them in on issues, pass on log-in information, make sure they are set.

• Pass on any useful URLs and links to client
• Pass on any login information to the client
• Update client on anything they should expect at project’s end
• Send the client the final invoice, if not already done

b. Sell maintenance, phase 2, or other enhancements

If any item or feature was deemed out of scope, there’s still a chance to sell it after the fact. You can pitch updates to your client that can address any of the things that were left on the cutting room floor. However, not all companies are open to this so only move ahead with this after reading the room.

• Itemize maintenance or enhancement
• Present maintenance or enhancement to client
• Pitch phase 2, if needed

c. Organize a customer wrap-up meeting

No matter how many emails or notes you send, a face-to-face (or conference call) meeting is the best way to close everything off. Your client will appreciate being able to chat and ask questions in real-time as you go over the project closure.

• Schedule a meeting with the client
• Draft a summary presentation
• Attend the meeting with the team

d. Send an email asking for feedback

Asking for feedback should always be a part of your process but there are different ways to go about this. For most, simply asking a few casual questions in an email is more than enough. If you can gather client feedback before finalizing your internal retrospective, you can share the information with your team.

• Construct a feedback form or email
• Request feedback from the client
• Follow up on feedback if not received
• Go over the feedback with your team

6. Hold a retrospective and/or send a survey to your team

Goal: Learn from successes and failures—as individuals, as a team, and as a business.

a. Hold a retrospective or post mortem gathering with your whole team

Yes, hold a project retrospective every time.  Even if it was uncomplicated and went smoothly. A retrospective is not meant to only showcase how to fix things that went wrong, although that tends to be the focus (especially on a tough project). It’s also meant to show what went right, and how to replicate that over other projects.

• Schedule a retrospective
• Ask the team for any agenda items
• Send around the planned agenda
• Host the meeting
• Take note of perceived successes and failures

b. Present an anonymous survey to your team

The anonymous survey is a great way to get really honest feedback from people who aren’t good at confrontation.

Use simple questions with multiple-choice for best results, though always leave room for additional notes or comments

• Design survey questions, keeping them simple
• Collect anonymous responses
• Curate responses plus your own additions into a deck
• Share deck with the project team
• Edit deck with project team comments
• Share deck executive team

c. Go through lessons learned with your team and archive them for future use

You won’t want to put this much time in a retrospective and feedback cycle and then just toss out or forget the results. All of this data is going to make you a better project team in the future. That’s why I recommend putting together a final report of lessons learned, making sure your team has read them, and then archiving them.

• Create a lessons learned register
• Host a LL meeting with your team
• Gather key LL
• Compile LL into a document
• Share and store LL document for future use

Phase 3: Last Look and Moving Forward

7. put together a final project report to audit the project successes/failures.

Goal: Summarize what worked and what didn’t with your project.

a. Host a closeout reporting meeting

In this closeout meeting, you will have a chance to analyze what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what can be improved for next time.

You have all of your final reporting, now is the time to go over it. It’s important to do this sooner rather than later, while all the minute details are still fresh in your mind.

• Schedule close-out reporting meeting
• Compare estimates vs results
• Discuss failures
• Discuss solutions

b. Analyze how well the project is delivering against project objectives

Instead of trying to make botched quick fixes, be a bit more strategic. It’s time to start thinking about the next steps and where we take the project from here. We need to work out how is the project performing against the KPIs. To what extent is it getting results?

Talk with clients to get conversion data, and use analytics and maybe even more user testing to identify any issues and explore opportunities to optimize the project.

• Outline important goals
• Measure expected vs reality for goals

8. Create a roadmap for moving forward based on what you learned

Goal: Taking the data you have collected and turning it into a plan.

a. Compile all the data you have collected and turn it into a roadmap

When you’re clear on any issues and opportunities, create a roadmap to carefully define the sequence of implementing them. Plan it out, taking into consideration the client’s budget and the importance rather than the perceived urgency of the changes. Start with the quick wins and plan out the bigger opportunities and enhancements.

• Compile all the data you have collected
• Transform data into an actionable roadmap
• Ask the team for roadmap feedback
• Send a roadmap for approval

b. Implement the roadmap once it's approved

Start implementing each of the enhancements as a new project. It’s important that the analysis, roadmap, and optimization cycle continues on the project even after the initial roadmap is completed . It’s often at this stage that the priority shifts from function to content in terms of optimization. Explore the project’s ongoing content strategy.

• Discuss the roadmap with your client
• Integrate the client's feedback into the roadmap
• Loop in the account manager

9. Celebrate

Goal: Let your team know they are valued and congratulate them on their hard work.

a. Consider a personalized acknowledgment to your teammates (gift or note)

When I worked in an office, I’d be sure to do something special for each of my teammates, and they always appreciated it.  So, even though I’m remote, I still send a little something to my teammates when we’re done with a project. At the very least, send a thank you note (card), but you can also try smallish gifts or a round of Happy Hour drinks.

• Pick out small gifts/cards for the team

10. Update your credentials

Goal: Have your professional records reflect this most recent completed project.

a. Update your personal credentials

Some people update their professional credentials (resume, LinkedIn, etc.) on an as-needed basis. About to pitch yourself for a project or apply for a job? Quick, scramble to update the ol’ resume!

It’s actually way easier to update your resume at the end of the project closure cycle when all the details are still firm in your mind.

• Update your resume notes
• Update your LinkedIn
• Update any other personal career-oriented profile you have

b. Update your company portfolio

Alongside your “personal” profiles, your company probably has its own set of sources and sites that you will want to update with this most recently completed project.

You might update your website, for example, but you might also pull out key stats or visualizations of the project and add it to a physical portfolio, as well.

• Update your company website
• Update your company portfolio
• Update any other company sources or sites

Project Closure Checklist [Download]

In DPM Membership, there’s a project closure checklist that follows all of the steps in the project closing process that I layout in this article.

It goes through the main phases but also breaks down each phase into a list of subtasks for you to check off during project closeout. DPM Members get access to the checklist, plus 100+ other templates, lists, samples, ebooks, workshops, and more.

Avoiding Scope Creep During Project Closure

So you’ve completed smoke testing, your checklist is complete, the admin is buttoned up, and you’re happy the project is complete?

The statement of work should clearly define when a project is complete and all in-scope deliverables are delivered.

When the immediate bug fixes are complete, it’s important that we don’t start adding in last-minute feature requests.

Some of the biggest mistakes are made trying to make quick fixes to a project in the days just after it has gone live when clients start panicking and changing their minds about things! Invariably, this kind of botch job leaves the site user experience or design severely compromised. Knee-jerk changes are never thought out properly and contribute to scope creep !

Other Considerations For Project Closure

In some teams, project closure requires some accounting updates, or possibly documentation requirements that apply in some verticals.

There could be any number of things that the project manager is required to do at the end of a project that you might not think to do. You should already have a good sense of what is required, but if you’re not sure what is expected of you, ask about things like specific accounting updates or documentation requirements.

Important Note

Depending on your situation, you may be doing a project transition more than a project closure. Here’s the process for project hand-off to a new owner.

What's Next?

To get access to 100+ templates, samples, and examples for other project management process, sign up for DPM membership . You'll also get access to community conversations in Slack with 100's of other digital project managers.

How To Organize Digital Assets: Expert Tips & Tricks

7 steps to make your dam implementation a success, how to create a digital asset management rfp.

One Time Code

< Go back to Login

Forgot Password

Please enter your registered email ID. You will receive an email message with instructions on how to reset your password.

Project Closure Templates

•   Creative Agenda List PowerPoint Template - 4x3  –  $5.99
•   Creative Agenda List PowerPoint Template - 16x9  –  $5.99

Creative Agenda List PowerPoint & Google Slides Template

Creative Agenda List PowerPoint & Google Slides Template Listing down the topics for your meeting using the Creative Agenda List PowerPoint &....

•   Key Considerations PowerPoint Template-4x3  –  $6.99
•   Key Considerations PowerPoint Template-16x9  –  $6.99

Key Considerations PowerPoint Template

Lessons learned are both good and bad experiences you learned in the past. It gives a great opportunity to learn valuable lessons and get you mor....

•   Project Closure Presentation - 4x3  –  $19.99
•   Project Closure Presentation - 16x9  –  $19.99

Project Closure Presentation PowerPoint Template

About Project Closure Presentation PowerPoint Template The Project Closure Presentation PowerPoint Template ensures you present your project clos....

•   Lessons Learned List - 4x3  –  $6.99
•   Lessons Learned List - 16x9  –  $6.99

Lessons Learned List PowerPoint Template

Lessons Learned List PowerPoint Template Lessons Learned List PowerPoint template helps you in capturing and showcasing the valuable insights gai....

•   Project Submission Checklist - 4x3  –  $6.99
•   Project Submission Checklist - 16x9  –  $6.99

Project Submission Checklist PowerPoint Template

Project Submission Checklist Presentation Template Use this Project Submission Checklist PowerPoint template to create visually appealing present....

•   Project Completion Executive Summary - 4x3  –  $6.99
•   Project Completion Executive Summary - 16x9  –  $6.99

Project Completion Executive Summary PowerPoint Template

This executive summary PowerPoint template is highly useful and conclusive, laying out a project’s key details and highlights. This can be presen....

•   Project Retrospective 03 - 4x3  –  $6.99
•   Project Retrospective 03 - 16x9  –  $6.99

Project Retrospective 03 PowerPoint Template

A project retrospective session is a gathering of team members to devote time to a completed project and examine it in order to learn from the su....

•   Project Retrospective 01 - 4x3  –  $6.99
•   Project Retrospective 01 - 16x9  –  $6.99

Project Retrospective 01 PowerPoint Template

Project Retrospective 01 Presentation Template Use this Project Retrospective 01 PowerPoint template to create visually appealing presentations i....

•   Project Retrospective - 4x3  –  $6.99
•   Project Retrospective - 16x9  –  $6.99

Project Retrospective PowerPoint Template

Project Retrospective Presentation Template Use this Project Retrospective PowerPoint template to create visually appealing presentations in any ....

•   Project Acceptance Criteria - 4x3  –  $4.99
•   Project Acceptance Criteria - 16x9  –  $4.99

Project Acceptance Criteria PowerPoint Template

Project Acceptance Criteria Presentation Template Use this Project Acceptance Criteria PowerPoint template to create visually appealing presentat....

•   Project Retrospective 02 - 4x3  –  $4.99
•   Project Retrospective 02 - 16x9  –  $4.99

Project Retrospective 02 PowerPoint Template

Project Retrospective 02 Presentation Template Use this Project Retrospective 02 PowerPoint template to create visually appealing presentations i....

•   Project Retrospective 04 - 4x3  –  $4.99
•   Project Retrospective 04 - 16x9  –  $4.99

Project Retrospective 04 PowerPoint Template

Project Retrospective 04 Presentation Template Use this Project Retrospective 04 PowerPoint template to create visually appealing presentations i....

Related Presentations

Project retrospective.

7 templates >

Project Tracking

173 templates >

Project Review

86 templates >

Project Management

1,538 templates >

Project Status

171 templates >

Project Closure PowerPoint Templates For Presentations:

The Project Closure PowerPoint templates go beyond traditional static slides to make your professional presentations stand out. Given the sleek design and customized features, they can be used as PowerPoint as well as  Google Slides templates . Inculcated with visually appealing unique and creative designs, the templates will double your presentation value in front of your audience. You can browse through a vast library of Project Closure Google Slides templates,  PowerPoint themes  and  backgrounds  to stand out in your next presentation.

Product Pricing

What is a project closure powerpoint template.

A Project Closure PowerPoint template is a ready-made presentation template that provides a structured framework for creating professional Project Closure presentations. The Project Closure PPT presentation template includes design elements, layouts, and fonts that you can customize to fit your content and brand.

How To Choose The Best Project Closure Presentation Templates?

Keep the following points in mind while choosing a Project Closure Presentation template for PowerPoint (PPT) or Google Slides:

• Understand your presentation goals and objectives.
• Make sure the Project Closure template aligns with your visual needs and appeal.
• Ensure the template is versatile enough to adapt to various types of content.
• Ensure the template is easily customizable.

Are Project Closure PowerPoint Templates Compatible With Google Slides?

Yes, all our Project Closure presentation templates are compatible and can be used as Project Closure Google Slides templates.

What Are The Advantages Of Project Closure Presentation Templates?

Project Closure PPT presentation templates can be beneficial because they:

• Add multiple visual and aesthetic layers to your slides.
• Ensure that complex information, insights and data is presented in a simplistic way.
• Enhance the overall visual appeal of the content.
• Save you a lot of time as you don’t have to start editing from scratch.
• Improve the professional outlook of your presentation.

Can I Edit The Elements In Project Closure PowerPoint Templates?

Yes, our Project Closure PowerPoint and Google Slides templates are fully editable. You can easily modify the individual elements including icons, fonts, colors, etc. while making your presentations using  professional PowerPoint templates .

How To Download Project Closure PowerPoint Templates For Presentations?

To download Project Closure presentation templates, you can follow these steps:

• Select the resolution (16*9 or 4*3).
• Select the format you want to download the Project Closure template in (Google Slides or PowerPoint).
• Make the payment (SlideUpLift has a collection of paid as well as free Project Closure PowerPoint templates).
• You can download the file or open it in Google Slides.

Forgot Password?

Privacy Overview

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

copilot_2408_commercial_ongoing

Image header .

August edition: Copilot for Microsoft 365 updates

Copilot continues to provide ways for you to get your work done with less effort and frustration. This month, we'll tell you how you can do a Bing search directly in Word, how you can query in Copilot for specific time periods, and how you can query to get the details you need about a PowerPoint presentation. We also have news about improvements we've made in response to your requests: How you can create PowerPoint presentations just by referencing a Word doc, and that Copilot can analyze Excel data that has been set free from tables. 

Announcement

Prompts we think you’ll love .

Improve your Microsoft Copilot skills

Try these new Copilot features  ​​​​​​​

Search bing directly in word to draft a plan based on internal and internet resources   .

Do you want to search for important information without having to leave Word? Ask Copilot a question in Word chat and Copilot will answer using integrated Bing search. 

Ask Copilot, "Who are the board of directors for Microsoft?" 

Try in Word

Ask specific questions about PowerPoint presentations to reduce information overload 

Do you want to get to the substance of a PowerPoint presentation without scrolling through each slide? You can now ask Copilot in PowerPoint to summarize a presentation or answer specific questions about it.  

Ask Copilot, "What is the goal of this project?" or "Summarize slide 5."  

Try in PowerPoint

Query about a specific time period to get more precise information

Do you want information from a specific time period, like yesterday, last month, or last year? Copilot can now identify any time period and respond to your request with the information you want. 

Ask Copilot, "Summarize all chats with [team member] from last October."  

Try in Copilot

Improvements based on your feedback

Reference a word document to create a marketing presentation without needing to copy links to the document     .

Want to get a quick start with a PowerPoint presentation? Simply reference a Word doc as your source in Copilot for PowerPoint and let Copilot do the rest.  

Ask Copilot, "Create a presentation from /[document]."

Reason over business data, survey results or project progress in Excel without a table  

Until now, you needed to organize your Excel data in tables before Copilot could reason over it. Now Copilot can reason over data ranges with only a single row of headers on top. 

Try in Excel

Helpful resources

You can keep learning on our Copilot website , where you'll find videos, how-tos, tips, and links to try it out. You can also discover how to communicate effectively with Copilot using prompts.

Transform your workflows with expert guidance about how to use Copilot for specific scenarios in the Microsoft Copilot Scenario Library . 

If you want to see what you missed in past months, check out the updates history .

Take the power of AI on the go! Download the Microsoft Copilot mobile app and sign in with your work account today. 

Some features highlighted here may not be available for the Microsoft 365 suite you're using. 

Some Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the European Economic Area and Switzerland do not include Microsoft Teams.  Learn more on our licensing page

This email is generated from an unmonitored alias. Please do not reply.

Unsubscribe

Privacy Statement

Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 USA

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Presentation Skills Series: Successful Public Speaking and Storytelling

• Google Calendar
• Yahoo! Calendar
• iCal Calendar
• Outlook Calendar

Public speaking and storytelling are essential for inspiring partners and garnering support for conservation and development goals. 

The Global Wildlife Program (GWP), funded by the GEF and led by the World Bank, organized two workshops aimed at improving public speaking and storytelling skills for GWP project teams. The workshops were led by instructors from Dale Carnegie , a renowned institution in communication and leadership training, and 64 participants from 29 countries joined to learn how to engage listeners and deliver compelling presentations. Participants gained confidence in sharing their conservation stories with diverse audiences. 

Five key takeaways from the workshop :

major points I will make, and with what supporting ideas and evidence?

Use an interesting opening such as a surprising statement, a question, or a story to draw your listeners in.

Delivery makes presentations come alive . Use techniques such as word emphasis, pauses, pacing, voice modulation, phrasing, and movement to capture your audience’s attention and communicate with greater impact.

Handle a question-and-answer session confidently. You can invite questions during a discussion round by saying “Who has the first question?”, or if there are no questions, you can state and answer your own question to start a discussion. 

Take time to craft closing remarks that leave a positive lasting impression and fulfill your objectives, whether that is to inform, persuade, or inspire the audience.

With these tips, participants were trained to use the power of presentations to deliver memorable and effective talks, share the impacts of their conservation work, and communicate with partners and stakeholders. Additionally, participants from India, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Panama, and Tanzania had the opportunity to attend small-group coaching sessions to deliver mock presentations and practice these skills with the instructors.

“The session was very useful. I learned more on being concise with presentations, structuring them based on the simple tips that David shared with us, and on the flow of ideas for the presenter to meet intended objectives of the presentation with the audience.” – Damas, Tanzania

“David’s coaching helped me re-connect with the WHY and keep the presentation simple to connect better with the audience.” – Ricardo, Panama

Global Wildlife Program 

This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser. To learn more about cookies, click here .

Free PowerPoint Project Charter Templates

By Lulu Richter | August 3, 2024

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

We’ve compiled the top project charter templates for PowerPoint to help you outline your project goals, timelines, and stakeholder details efficiently.

Included in this article, you’ll find the following:

• Advanced project charter template
• Agile Scrum project charter template
• Six Sigma charter template
• Committee project charter template
• Project kickoff meeting charter template

PowerPoint Basic Project Charter Template

Download the Blank Basic Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

Download the Sample Basic Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Use this basic team charter slide template when you need a straightforward, easy-to-understand framework for defining team roles, responsibilities, and objectives and don’t require extensive customization.

Notable Template Features:  With or without sample data, this template stands out, thanks to its clear, concise sections that facilitate quick comprehension and implementation, making it ideal for new teams or projects focusing on simplicity and efficiency.

For additional project charter templates and guidelines, check out our comprehensive collection of  project charter templates and guidelines . 

Advanced PowerPoint Project Charter Template

Download the Blank Advanced Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

Download the Sample Advanced Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Use this advanced PowerPoint project charter template for complex projects that require detailed planning and clear communication across multiple teams or departments to ensure thorough documentation and structured processes.

Notable Template Features:  This template with or without sample data is distinguished by its comprehensive sections covering all aspects of project management, from risk assessment to change management. This makes it ideal for intricate projects that have high stakes and multiple stakeholders.

If you’re looking for a detailed form to create your project charter, visit this  project charter form template for a ready-to-use option. 

PowerPoint Agile Scrum Project Charter Template

Download the Blank Agile Scrum Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

Download the Sample Agile Scrum Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Deploy this PowerPoint Agile Scrum project charter template when your project requires a flexible, iterative approach to manage user-centric tasks and stories. With this template you can ensure continuous delivery of valuable features.

Notable Template Features:  This template with or without sample data excels due to its detailed breakdown of user activities, tasks, and stories, along with prioritization and journey stages. The template is ideal for Agile teams focused on delivering high-impact user experiences in incremental releases.

PowerPoint Six Sigma Charter Template

Download the Blank Six Sigma Charter Template for PowerPoint

Download the Sample Six Sigma Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Employ this PowerPoint Six Sigma team charter template for projects that require rigorous process improvement-methodologies that aim to enhance performance and eliminate defects.

Notable Template Features:  With or without sample data, this template’s strength lies in its detailed focus on Six Sigma methodologies, including DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) phases and critical-to-quality metrics. The template is ideal for teams committed to data-driven, systematic problem-solving and process optimization. 

PowerPoint Committee Project Charter Template

Download the Committee Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Utilize this template when you are organizing a committee to tackle specific issues or achieve defined goals. The committee project charter template ensures a structured approach to governance and project execution.

Notable Template Features:  This template offers comprehensive coverage of governance structure and resource allocation, so it’s ideal for committees that need clear decision-making processes and well-defined roles to drive their initiatives successfully.

Understanding the essential components of a project charter is crucial — learn more about the  key elements of a project charter to ensure you include all necessary details.

PowerPoint Project Kickoff Meeting Charter Template

Download the Project Kickoff Meeting Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  This project kickoff meeting charter template can ensure a well-structured and effective kickoff meeting, laying a solid foundation for your project’s execution.

Notable Template Features:  This template shines with its detailed agenda overview and comprehensive project scope and timeline sections, making it ideal for aligning the team and stakeholders on objectives, roles, and milestones right from the start.

Need help drafting your project charter? Follow this step-by-step guide on  how to write a project charter for expert tips and best practices.

PowerPoint IT Project Charter Template

Download the IT Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Opt for this information technology (IT) project charter template to address IT-specific challenges and solutions for projects that require clear articulation of technical goals and thorough planning.

Notable Template Features:  This template excels with its detailed budget overview and quality assurance measures, making it ideal for IT projects that demand meticulous resource planning, risk management, and adherence to technical standards.

PowerPoint Kaizen Project Charter Template

Download the Kaizen Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Use this Kaizen project charter template for continuous improvement projects that focus on enhancing efficiency and quality through incremental changes and active team involvement.

Notable Template Features:  This template is particularly effective with its thorough current state analysis and detailed implementation plan, which make it ideal for projects that require systematic identification of inefficiencies and structured strategies for improvement. 

PowerPoint Team Charter Canvas Template

Download the Team Charter Canvas Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Apply this team charter canvas template when forming a new team or redefining an existing team’s structure and goals to ensure clarity in roles, values, and objectives to enhance team cohesion and effectiveness.

Notable Template Features:  This template is particularly effective due to its comprehensive coverage of team dynamics and individual roles, as well as a detailed RACI matrix. All of this makes it ideal for teams needing a clear understanding of responsibilities and strong alignment with project goals.

PowerPoint Lean Project Charter Template

Download the Lean Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Use this Lean project charter template for projects focused on enhancing efficiency and reducing waste, aligning with Lean principles to achieve streamlined processes and optimal resource utilization.

Notable Template Features:  This template emphasizes Lean methodologies and risk management strategies, making it ideal for projects that require rigorous process improvements and effective stakeholder engagement to drive successful outcomes.

PowerPoint Construction Project Charter Template

Download the Construction Project Charter Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  Use this construction project charter template for organizing and managing complex construction projects, and ensure that all key aspects of the project, from scope to stakeholder involvement, are clearly defined and communicated.

Notable Template Features:  This template is particularly effective due to its detailed budget breakdown and phased timeline, making it ideal for construction projects that require meticulous planning, resource allocation, and risk management to ensure successful completion. 

Get the Most Out of Your Project Charter with Smartsheet for Project Management

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

A CIO canceled a Microsoft AI deal. The reason should worry the entire tech industry.

• A pharma company stopped using Microsoft's Copilot AI tool, with an exec citing high cost and low value.
• The company used Office 365 Copilot for 500 staff and compared it to middle-school presentations.
• Microsoft is mulling repackaging 365 licenses to better monetize AI features amid record spending.

AI models and tools look great when researchers measure success with their own wonky benchmarks. When paying customers try this technology in the real world, things can get ugly.

That's what happened when an IT executive at a pharmaceutical company tried out Microsoft's Copilot AI features, according to a recent research note from Morgan Stanley.

The chief information officer of this pharma company paid extra to have 500 employees use Office 365 Copilot in the fourth quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024. This is Microsoft 's much-heralded AI upgrade to its popular suite of productivity software.

After six months, the exec canceled the upgrade because the AI tools weren't good enough to be worth the extra money.

In fact, he compared the slide-generation capability of Microsoft's AI tools to "middle school presentations," according to a transcript of a call with the Morgan Stanley analysts that was included in their research note.

"The price is double," the executive, identified only as Greg, said. "And we really just do not see the value we're getting out of those tools worth double."

The E3 version of Microsoft's 365 software suite costs about $34 per user a month. Adding Copilot AI features costs another $30 per user a month. For 500 employees, that would roughly add an extra $180,000 a year.

These new Microsoft tools are considered some of the premier examples of powerful artificial intelligence in action in the real world. Investors have bid up Microsoft and other big tech shares massively, betting that this product and similar offerings will catch on with paying customers.

If a large pharma company can't see $180,000 of value in these tools, that's a problem that should worry the entire tech industry.

Legal issues with AI meeting summaries

The 365 Copilot AI feature that the IT executive found more compelling was the ability to archive and summarize video meetings on Microsoft's Teams app. But he said his legal team was wary of retaining meeting transcripts, so the pharma company didn't use that feature.

Related stories

"What you're left with are tools that are along the lines of building ChatGPT instead of Word, which I think is marginally useful at best," the exec said. "Building a generative AI slide capability, which really is at the quality of middle school presentations at this point. And then Excel, which is, again, not really something that most people who use spreadsheets would think of using it."

He added that the company would consider adopting Office 365 Copilot for a subset of employees if it cost a fraction of its current price.

Microsoft must recoup big AI investments

The comments follow internal concerns at Microsoft about whether its AI services will create enough value to persuade corporate customers to pay more.

Wall Street is also wondering how Microsoft will recoup its massive AI spending. The company is amassing 1.8 million graphics processing units to build and run AI models and related products. It also has a plan to triple data-center capacity, mainly to handle AI workloads. Its capital expenditure hit a record $14 billion in the most recent quarter. A company spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Microsoft is considering revamping the way it packages 365 software licenses like E3 to try to make more money from AI. The outcomes could include repackaging AI features into existing licenses or creating a more expensive bundle with Copilot AI capabilities, a person with direct knowledge of the plan said.

Do you work at Microsoft or have insight to share?

Contact Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ( [email protected] ). Use a nonwork device.

Watch: Volkswagen is using AI to speed up and scale marketing, while also integrating ChatGPT into its vehicles, says CMO Susanne Franz

• Main content