Once your project nears completion, you'll have to close it. Let's discuss the steps you should take to close a project or a phase of a project. We'll go over types of project closure, the organizational knowledge base, phase closure activities. The activities required to close a project and initiating a project audit. There are four types of project closure, normal project closure, premature project closure, perpetual project closure and failed project closure. Normal project closure, the most common type, is simply the handoff of a completed project to operations which then takes ownership of the outcome resulting from the project's completion. Premature closure happens when a project can be completed ahead of schedule with a higher profit margin justifying the early closure and release of the project outcome. Perpetual projects are characterized by add-ons or scope creep and often result from a poorly crafted scope statement. Perpetual projects ought to be reviewed at some point and recommended for project closure. The fourth type of project closure is failed project closure. Failure can be caused by incomplete scope, lack of resources, budget shortages or poor planning. Regardless of the type of closure process, there are many documents that must be reviewed before project closure can take place. Among those documents are agreements or contracts, along with the organizational process assets called policies and procedures. The policies and procedures are then compared to the changes in the project. That way the client can make changes or adjustments where needed. The tools of variance analysis are then compared to the work that was actually completed so that the seller can be paid. The project manager can also carry out a lessons learned session to determine whether there are any important action items that need to be captured on account of the project's closure.