Time Core · Project management · Module
Closing
Ending the project deliberately: confirming it is done, releasing the people, and recording what actually happened.
The idea
How it works
Projects trail off more often than they end. Nobody declares it finished, a few people continue on it indefinitely, and the capacity is never released.
The record of what actually happened — estimated against actual — is the only mechanism by which an organisation’s estimates improve, and it takes an hour.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Declare it finished
Against the definition of done, by someone with the authority to accept it.
- 02
Hand it over explicitly
To whoever runs it now. A project that ends without a handover becomes a project that never ends.
- 03
Release the people
Formally, or they remain half-allocated to it indefinitely and their capacity is invisible.
- 04
Record estimated against actual
One line. It is the entire basis on which the next estimate can be better than this one.
One level in
The components of closing
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
A project that ends without a handover becomes a project that never ends.
The other modules in project management
Defining the work
What is being done, what is not, and what would count as finished — the agreement everything downstream depends on.
LearnSequence
What has to happen before what, what the project depends on that it does not control, and which chain determines the date.
LearnRunning it
How progress is established, how change is handled, and how a problem becomes visible before the deadline rather than at it.
Learn