Successfully Closing the “Never-Ending” Project

When 100% Doesn’t Mean Finished

Your project plan reads 100% complete, all your milestones are achieved, you’ve finished every feature, story, and requirement.

You email leadership to close out the project, only to find you are requested to keep it open - and it stays open another 10, 20, 30+ days.

?As time drags on, you wonder “What can I do to finish this?”

A Tough Situation

This article explores a tricky project leadership scenario that can be difficult to deal with – how to successfully close a “never-ending” project.

Before going any further, it’s important to note there’s nothing wrong with long-term, Kanban, or ongoing operations projects.?

The issue is when your project was SUPPOSED to end, but doesn’t for a whole variety of reasons:

• The SOW, charter, SLAs, etc. are vague, gray, and / or open to interpretation
• The project supports an ever-evolving business need or priority
• The features delivered are client facing and thus the results are highly visible at all times
• The project is R&D, you are developing something new, needed, and never done before

Less Visible Causes:

In addition to the visible causes, there may be some underlying, less visible reasons that are worth exploring. To name just a few:

You Can’t Close Because…

You may notice the following when you try to close a never-ending project:

1. Stakeholders, previously quiet, are now speaking up and in great detail
2. A “new”, “different” or “evolving” perspective of the requirements has emerged
3. A deeper understanding of what the client wants / needs / can’t live without is revealed

What this all typically translates into – scope creep, feature creep, numerous project change requests, all leading to extended project timelines.

Navigating the Challenges:

There’s no single answer here as each project, scenario, and stakeholder is different. However, a few do’s and doesn’t are recommended to get you on the right path:

Conclusion:

At the highest level, a project is meant to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. If it only has:

• A “beginning” - it’s an idea, a concept, a prototype.
• An “end” – it’s likely a well-defined, already existing, proven product.
• A “middle” – then you are potentially managing a “never-ending” project.

If you find yourself working only in “the middle,” well beyond the point your project was to be closed – stop and try to understand:

1. What’s keeping the project open?
2. Who’s keeping it open?
3. Why are they keeping it open?

Understanding and getting agreement on these questions will help ensure your project has as successful an ending as it had a beginning and a middle.