Our archive contains everything, but nobody can find the final version. What should change?
Unusable closure archiveCreate an organized final record with authoritative versions, meaningful metadata, and controlled access. Separate superseded drafts from approved deliverables without destroying records that must be retained. Verify that a receiving user can locate key evidence without the former project manager's help.
What to do now
- Identify the authoritative closure records
- Organize versions ownership and access
- Apply approved retention and confidentiality rules
- Test retrieval with a receiving user
When to escalate
Required records cannot be located or accessed by authorized owners.
The sponsor and accepting business or service owner
Example
The final acceptance record links directly to its approved deliverable versions and supporting tests.
Mistake to avoid
Calling a large unstructured folder an adequate handover archive.
Prevent a repeat
Verify that transferred obligations and important lesson actions are completed after the project closes.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Projects
- Documents
- Tasks
- Approvals
Keep the closure decision and final evidence with the project and transfer accepted residual actions to named ongoing owners. See the platform
Related cases
- We wrote lessons learned, but nobody reuses them. How do we change that?Lessons disconnected from future decisions
- When should I release team members from a closing project?Unplanned resource release
- How do we keep quality evidence usable after handover?Unusable evidence archive
- How do we stop approved scope from drifting between versions?Baseline version drift