Project-ending competence in premature project closures

Abstract Project management literature tends to focus on the early phases of a project and on the associated generic project management competences, such as planning, scheduling, budgeting, resourcing and motivating. Only a small fraction of the discussion is devoted to project closure and to the competences needed when a project fails to reach the goals and so needs to be closed prematurely. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of project-ending competences needed in premature project closures. Two cases of premature project closure are analysed in different contexts: in the car industry and the aircraft manufacturing industry. The key findings concern the managerial challenges that are present in premature project closures: the need for involvement of senior and also project managers, the need to understand the often changed role of internal and external project stakeholders, and the need to understand that the ‘future matters’ in premature project closure.