When it's time to abandon...

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One of the 12 Agile Principles (http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html) is, “Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.” One way to maximize the work not done is to abandon a project that has already been approved or is underway, thus freeing up resources for other work.

A new TPA client conversion project should always trigger a review by the Governance Team to determine if any other projects should be stopped or paused to free up capacity to work on the new client conversion. Here a just a few red flags to identify projects that should be canceled or paused to free up capacity:

· An IT infrastructure project that relies on an unproven technology is reporting quality issues

· A software development project is experiencing delays in approving deliverables due to lack of attention by the business owner

· The kickoff meeting for a next-generation proof-of-concept project has been delayed because a business sponsor has not yet been identified

The decision to abandon an internal focused project is painful and always a political challenge but failure to do so could put your new client conversion project at risk. And will certainly be more painful.