Stage boundaries and closure
Managing a stage boundary gives the board what it needs to decide whether to continue: the current stage's performance, the next stage plan, and the updated business case. Closing a project verifies acceptance, hands over products, and makes the follow-on recommendations.
Why it is like this
Stage boundaries are where the continued-justification principle becomes a procedure. Closure exists so that projects end deliberately rather than fading out.
Not to be confused with
A reporting formality and an archive. A stage boundary is also run when an exception plan is required, and closure is still performed when a project is stopped early — premature closure is a managed outcome, not an abandonment.
In practice
Benefits realised after the project are tracked by the benefits management approach, handed over at closure — the project does not stay open to measure them.
Source: Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, 7th edition (PeopleCert, 2023) — PRINCE2 7, §19 and §20. Read on .
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Predict Check yourself
A project is stopped early because the business case no longer holds. What does PRINCE2 require next?
Show the answer
Run closing a project — premature closure is still a managed closure, with handover, acceptance and follow-on recommendations.
The process explicitly covers premature closure. Skipping it is how half-finished products end up unowned.