I'm confused by the Close Project phase. I read the PMBOK, and it mentions a bunch of things you should confirm. But it's not clear the order of operations. And quite a number of the things you're confirming, if I understand correctly, should've been done in other processes. Yet I've run into several questions here and elsewhere that say things like "you've done X, Y, and Z of closing. What do you do next?" But I don't feel clear on the order or even what's included.

For example, in closing, it says to "finalize open claims". But in Control Procurements, one of the outputs is "closed procurements." In the description, it says "there should be no outstanding claims or invoices." So if a question is getting at when you finalize claims, or what do you do next in closing, I don't know what the answer is. Because it should've already been done, but some of the questions I'm running conflict with that.

Similarly, in closing: " confirming the delivery and formal acceptance of deliverables by the customer." But didn't we get formal acceptance of deliverables in Validate Scope? In fact, accepted deliverables are an input to Closing, so how are we confirming formal acceptance in Closing Project?

I'm having a hard time determining the right answer for questions about closing, formal acceptance, claims, etc. because it seems like it's finished BEFORE closing, but I see questions that indicate it's done during the Close Project process.

Can anyone help this make sense to me? Thank you!!