New director in the chair
Closure has a unique set of challenges and is one of the stages that is too often done badly (Ceran & Dorman, 1995). The preferred outcome is a project that provides the deliverables and is shut down in a controlled and progressive manner (PMI, 2004), leaving everyone content (Meredith & Mantel, 1995). In other words, the project should satisfy all the stakeholders: the client, project organisation, sub-contractors, and the team members. The problem is that the project can either grind on interminably consuming a steady trickle of resources, or terminate abruptly by providing only the basic deliverables and leaving loose ends all over. This paper describes the process of closure and presents various findings from the research literature.
