Closing Time

a one-day workshop on ending projects

This workshop is a short introduction to winding projects down, either deliberately or on short notice. It assumes that participants have some experience managing small projects but little or no formal training in how to end them. All of the material is available under an open license, and contributions through our repository are welcome. All participants are required to respect our Code of Conduct.

Learner Personas

There are important differences between shutting a project down of your own accord and on your own timeline, and shutting it down on short notice under difficult circumstances. This workshop therefore caters to two different learners:

• Vaida, 33, has a PhD in oceanography and works as a data analyst for the Ministry of the Environment. She has been collecting and publishing beach erosion data for six years and co-founded a volunteer group that teaches environmental science to high school students. She is relocating for a new job and wants to wind things down properly. She has two or three hours a week for the next couple of months.

• Liam, 41, is a software developer whose company was acquired sixteen months ago. After a change in leadership, management has decided to halt work on the open source tool he has built and focus their efforts on a closed-source alternative. He has been given until the end of the week to wind things down.

Lessons

1. Introduction
2. Governance, Assets, and Permissions
3. Communicating During a Deliberate Shutdown
4. On Short Notice
5. Preserving Your Work
6. Preserving Your People
7. Legal and Administrative Matters
8. Conclusion

Appendices

1. License
2. Code of Conduct
3. Contributing
4. Miscellaneous
5. Firing and Being Fired
6. Handing Over
7. Bibliography
8. Glossary

Acknowledgments

Greg Wilson is a programmer, author, and educator based in Toronto. He was the co-founder and first Executive Director of Software Carpentry and received ACM SIGSOFT's Influential Educator Award in 2020.

Many thanks to everyone who shared their stories and/or contributed to [Littauer2025].

start where you are · use what you have · help who you can