The final stage of the project lifecycle is the closure. A project should have a defined outcome and therefore an end. The ending of the project will include a sign off, evaluation and handover so that it moves into day-to-day operations.
When coming to the end of your project it is important to continue monitoring right to the very end. If you don't, you may experience what is known as project drift.
In signing off your project you will have gained agreement from all the relevant people of what completion means. This means that you have finished all the work set out in your plan. If you complete all the work on your plan and your project isn't finished, then there's something missing from your plan. However, you should look out for loose ends.
Make a big deal about your final milestone to keep the momentum going right until sign-off.
Evaluation
The only way to learn from the experience of managing a project is to evaluate the process.
Once your project is complete, you should ask yourself what went well and what didn’t go so well and then look at the reasons why. Your findings should be documented so that they can be shared within the organisation.
Everybody associated with the project should be involved in the review to some degree as this learning process can lead to improved future performance.
Project handover
When the project is signed off, you may need to "hand it over" to colleagues, another part of the organisation or whoever will manage any day-to-day operations that arise.
In this case you will need to decide exactly what that person or team needs to know to successfully use or maintain the outcome of the project
It is impossible to judge the success of your project until the end user / team has measured the project benefits. It is usually only once the project's end product has been in use for a while that this analysis can take place.
You will have agreed some critical success factors and some of these will be measurable straight away, while others will need some time. Make sure that you have set out a review process in your hand-over documents. It is vital that you review the success of your project on a longer timeframe to identify any mistakes or successes that haven't yet come to light.
Hitting any deadlines and staying within the budget is all very well, but the real success of your project should be determined by the suitability of the end result, whether that is a system, a process change, an event, or a product.