When hearing the term “project termination” most people think about the termination of a project caused
by failure. But the term is not dependent upon the success of the project. It also happens that a successful
project can end earlier than originally planned. But for most people the word “termination” has a negative
meaning. This abstract will focus more on reasons and problems of termination than on the “normal”
closure phase. Sometimes the term “termination” is used as an equivalent for “project closure”. Another
word is “close-out”, also used as an equivalent. The term termination is used for an ending of a project
before it was planned. If a project ends in the planned time it is mostly called project closure. Close-out
in literature is often used as an “umbrella term”. Project closure will be discussed later in this chapter.