Last month a project I was working on was first put on hold then cancelled by the client.

It was a real hard moment as this project had been amazing to work on.

Project background

I starred working on this project in November 2021 and this was a real digital transformation project. Not one of these projects called a transformation project to get budget then provide no real value.

This was going to revolutionise global processes for this organisation.

I am and have been passionate about this project and really driving the innovation. We have pushed the boundary on the initial ideas and squeezed all of the capabilities from the technology.

I want to thank all of the colleagues that worked on this solution and also the vendors of the technology that also have been involved.

What happened

My inbox came alive mid sprint as a few tickets were being put on hold. This was confusing as we were actively working on this project.

I messaged the business analyst wondering what was going on, the response was the product owner requested a hold.

This changed a week later when I had a ticket to remove all functionality and decommission the project.

Nothing else to say here it was all pretty sudden.

Possible issues

Here are reasons on what could have contributed to this being cancelled:

• Customer had a change in leadership of the digital team one month before (major factor). Sometimes they like to change things up.
• One country had a different solution they were using and not receptive to giving this a shot (big factor)
• Competing products sometimes look good for a single market and they over sell themselves. The issue here is when they try to scale it will fail.

Even now we are not sure on the actual reason however the person in charge changed. This to me is the major contributor to why this project may have unfortunately been cancelled.

What happens now?

Unfortunately this part of the project is over. I’m still proud of what was accomplished but unfortunately it won’t rollout globally.

Information is key, if you work of limited information or assume you know the answer it can come back to disrupt you.

My advice is talk –

• Project teams talk to the customers and have an honest look at what is working and not working.
• We/I work for the customer and will always be honest and not swayed.
• I’m my experience vanilla solutions solve about 70-80% of the customers need. It’s the remainder that requires a partners expertise.
• Support / Customer Success
  • This is a really important area that is often overlooked
  • Having a regular catchup or meeting can prevent so many issues
• It’s common for teams to only speak when their are problems. Reverse it and have a connections in place. This is something I always insist on doing.

This blog post started as a way to vent my frustration however as I said at the start it’s an inward look. It’s not a nice feeling to have a project you care about stopped but it happens.

In reality all we can do is the best we can and deliver amazing solutions.

The best part for me is I learnt a lot of knowledge that I can use and have already used on future projects.