ABSTRACT
If your project is a set of co-ordinated activities with definite start and finishing points, there must come a time when you have to undertake ‘close and dispose’ tasks and bring it to an orderly end. However, this should not be one of those ‘Will the last person out please turn off the lights?’ situations. Coming to the end of a project involves closing it down professionally, rather than simply ‘bailing out’, and will mean that the last impression the stakeholders will have is one of a professional and considerate approach. Like all the work earlier in the project, closure requires proper planning, execution and communications. If you close a project and a stakeholder subsequently asks you whether the project is still running, something has not gone as it should.
