Introduction to the project closing phase

The Closing Process Group is the lightest process group within the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) book, with a single process called the Close Project phase. As we will see in this chapter, being lightweight does not take away any of its importance. We tend to not pay much attention to the closure of small and personal projects. This tendency can lead to the same trivialization of closure, even with commercial projects. Improper or insufficient project closure can lead to some well-known risks, such as the following:

• The never-ending project: So many change requests have taken place in this project that the original scope is forgotten. The project is no longer financially profitable, but the resources cannot be released.
• The suspended project: The original stakeholder left the customer's company without a replacement, leading to difficulty in closing the project.
• The orphaned project: The project was executed...