Closing Projects

I'm running a little behind in my posts due to some much needed vacation time and then a family funeral out-of-state.

I closed four projects during December 2009. The most significant was the logistics project which had gone on thru roughly 14 months, facing extended technical issues, as well as a strong tendency toward "scope leap". That's right. I didn't say "scope creep". It's "scope LEAP!" When you want to modify the scope of an application integration from one site to an enterprise level consisting of sites across the USA, it's scope leap. We managed to bring it in with all major technical issues resolved (there's no other way, is there?) and a satisfied customer.

So, what do we allow in terms of technical defects when going into production? I've learned and have always adhered to the idea that any and all showstopper and major defects must be eliminated before going into production. Minor defects going into production must have the explicit sign-off of the business side, as well as the technical team that is inheriting the defects. It's part of the "hand-off" package in the closure documentation.

We actually look for physical signatures on the documentation. Doing so causes the sponsor, business manager, technical manager, and other signatories to really look at what is going into production. Normally, I like the Approve/Reject buttons in MS-Outlook, so we can use automation to its most efficient extent. In this case, however, I defer to physical signatures. Each party signs, scans the document into pdf format and returns it to me to send to the next in line. We had seven signatures on this particular hand-off document.

If you are interested in seeing this, email me.

At this point, I'm working the Active Directory Migration Project for Australia. As you might imagine, this is all done virtually. Teleconferences and World-wide Webex sessions have become my best friends. It is most interesting. We speak the same language, but we don't, if you get what I mean. And there are some cultural differences, which I'll describe in a future post.

Happy New Year and may your projects prosper!