The Project Termination is surely the most desired phase of the Project. Not in practice actually since that many team members who work for Project, contractors and so on, may be unemployed after all efforts, but we all have to agree that being able to finish a Project is something priceless. The online Magazine Computer World states that the number of unfinished IT Project grows and managers are taking different directions in order to avoid the problems that cause that. (Fonseca, 2008) But regardless of these problems that are a good number of Projects that are successful and these are the ones we need to focus rather focusing on the negative ones.
What makes a Project to be terminated as successful though? It is kind of obvious but if the Project achieves its goals and users, stakeholders and managers are happy with the results, we can say that this is a successful terminated Project. Activities and tasks are integrally completed. Contracts with suppliers, customers, vendors (as well as payments) have all been finalized. Team members were reassigned to different Projects. Materials and documentation to be used as reference have been handed-over. The accountancy has been concluded, including final costs and revenue. And suiting IT Projects, all tests, user acceptance and releases have been properly performed. Thus, these are clear points that feature a Project termination, in this case, a successful one.
Higher Managers see the Projects as building printed boxes in a big strategic picture. It does not matter how complex the Project is but sometimes strategic decisions might lead the Manager to simply eliminate one box or other. Another type of termination usually is configured as a Project failure. (Wideman, n.d.) Other causes such as customer rejection, payments not made and budget overrun are common amongst unsuccessful terminated Projects. Therefore, regardless of all efforts and complexity inherent to Projects (they are not building printed boxes either), there is thin line between the success and the failure.
Project Managers also have to deal with unfinished projects. Yes there are endless Projects too and they have to be treated in some point as failure. However, organizations might take awhile to decide that the current cost, status and outcome are not as expected. Other reasons such as low commercial viability, profitability and dependency in other Projects might also take long to be evaluated and for these reasons the Project is kept on stand-by mode.
As Professional I had the opportunity to work with every type of Project. Actually I have to confess that I have unclosed Projects on my own. But fortunately the range of finished Projects in my journey is big. I cannot say though that those were all successful, I would be lying, but certainly the way they fail, the way they succeed are never perfect as the literacy and researching say. Projects in my life were successful even though they overran, Projects were unsuccessful even though the customer got satisfied. In practice, Project Management confirms its complexity
B.Fonseca, 2008. SaaS benefits starting to outweigh risks for some [Online] Available at: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/214651/saas_benefits_starting_outweigh_risks_some/ [Accessed 17 June, 2011].
Wideman, n.d. Opportunity Cost - to - Ownership of Quality Responsibility [Online] Available at: http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/PMG_O01.htm [Accessed 17 June, 2011].
