The closing phase of a project involves activities like documentation of project outcomes, communicating about the project closure to all stakeholders and finalization of project accounts. This phase commences as soon as the client accepts the project result. Project teams are immediately redeployed back into the organization. A closing phase often marks the success of the project and increases the organization's prospects for getting new projects.
The success of a project depends on how diligently it is closed. Project closing is a very important but often neglected phase of a project which fails to capitalize on important aspects. Most organizations neglect the closing phase of a project for various reasons like-they are hard-pressed for time and project closing is a time consuming activity, or the team members do not have any time to spare as they have already involved themselves in new project. The enthusiasm and excitement present in the beginning of the project withers in due course of time as the team faces different challenges like the hard realities at the ground level and work in stressful work environments in the implementation stage. Their interest finally vanishes at the end of the project. Moreover, if the project fails, the reason for a slipshod project closure could be the natural psychological barrier to review the project and discuss the shortcomings that made it unsuccessful. If not formally closed, there is a tendency that projects may veer away from their original path and take a different shape from what was originally planned.
A project that is officially closed gives a learning opportunity to the organization which could be useful for future projects and for improving their strategies and policies. A successfully closed project leaves the client satisfied, which increases the organization's prospects of getting new projects. It enables the organization to terminate the responsibilities of the team members as far as the project is concerned, evaluate their performance and assign new responsibilities to them. |
