Closing a project: a crucial step

How do you finish a project?

This is an important phase that allows you to validate the quality of the project’s execution, provide feedback to the teams on the project’s effectiveness, and document the lessons learned that may be useful either to yourselves or to colleagues. And, a fundamental element, it is also the time to thank and appreciate the team’s work, a moment of collective recognition.Therefore, this phase should not be carried out solely because internal processes or controls require it, but because you recognize its value. And internal processes are a support to help you carry out this phase effectively.

Three key items to complete to close a project

Archiving only what’s necessary

Too often, we keep everything. That’s not the right approach. Why? There’s little to no chance you’ll still be in the same role when someone needs to look at that data. So, you should only keep what’s strictly necessary, helping and easing your future colleague navigating the dataset.
Ask yourself:

• Who will need this data?
• For which purpose?
• When?

Two options:

• Either you have the discipline to keep only the essentials throughout the project.
• Or you need to sort things out at the end.

Whichever method you choose, it must be done. A great practice implemented at Michelin is to set an expiration date on data, so you get a reminder to delete it. Useless data has an economic impact; it needs to be stored and backed up. And an ecological one, since it consumes energy. If it’s unnecessary, delete it.

Personal example:

For the Montreal Office site creation project, I archive:

• Final drawings (architect and engineering)
• Report and analyses demonstrating compliance with all regulations
• Contracts (invoices and payment proofs are automatically archived by accounting)
• Records of deviation. (drawings were not systematically updated)
• Project management documents and key milestones

I will write a summary of lessons learned, which I will share with my community.

Financial review

Are you close to or far from your initial estimate?
What were the deviations? What’s the final cost?
This review is key: it should allow someone to quickly understand the project’s flow, major events, and their financial impact.
This is done in the final gate review of your project.

In my example:

I finished with a $20,000 margin on a $4.2M budget. Like any project, there were surprises and extra costs. I had to make choices and drop some options to stay within budget. The important thing is to validate the soundness of those trade-offs.
For this project, the choices didn’t significantly affect the experience of clients, employees, or site visitors, nor our environmental goals.

Human review

This review takes more time. It’s often qualitative rather than quantitative.

Example

For this project, the goal was to create an environment that promotes unassigned workspaces. To do this, the layout and furniture choices offered a variety of options so everyone could find a space that suited their needs and mood.
To support this setup, clear living rules were defined with volunteers from the site’s occupants. This people change management was done by aligning structure and processes.
Such a change takes time, so a final review can only be done after one year of use.

If your projects involve significant human change, it’s important to do:

• A review at the end of execution
• A second review one year later, to observe the final balance and validate your learnings

Take this time to reflect and reaffirm your insights and conclusions.

Why close?

These three elements — archiving, financial review, human review — show the work needed to properly close a project.
If done well, they generate value for the company and for you.
When you ask your teams to go through this phase, explain its value.
Lead by example. Use the materials created. Ask to see them — not to control, but to learn.
It’s by giving meaning through example that your teams will close projects to complete their learning, not just to follow a process.
When these tasks are done with that mindset, the value created is on a whole different level.

🛠️ Three simple actions to close a project

At each project milestone
Organize a session to select and validate the documents and information to keep. All other intermediate materials should be destroyed. If you wait until the end of the project, the volume to sort will be so large that you’ll end up keeping everything.

Conduct a human debrief
Review with the team what went well and what could be improved (communication, decision‑making, coordination).

Conduct a financial debrief
Write a one‑pager that includes the initial, intermediate, and final estimates, along with the story explaining the variations. What do we want to repeat or avoid in the next project?

👉 These three simple actions strengthen your leadership posture and unlock your potential.