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The Apocalyptic Threat of Undead Projects

Don’t feed the zombies. Give them a merciful death.

Alan Nicol
Fri, 03/22/2013 - 10:06
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Are there any of us who haven’t been assigned to the “undead” project? You know, those projects that seem to go on forever without ever possessing the priority or proper resources to finally launch. Or the ones that are constantly redirected or defined so that we never make meaningful progress. Or sometimes they just get put on hold, then back into action, then back on hold for eternity.

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Have you ever considered the damage that such projects do to business productivity and morale? None of us enjoy being assigned to the “zombies.” We dislike it because we know that we are not set up to succeed, and that our time, energy, and effort are being wasted.

If it’s easy to recognize when our own efforts and potential are being wasted, why do we allow such projects to exist? How can we not recognize when we are wasting our business resources on a project that will never produce meaningful results? Worse yet, how can we continue to observe that we are feeding these projects and still keep them in the queue?

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Comments

Submitted by umberto mario tunesi on Wed, 03/27/2013 - 22:02

Jeremiah Johnson's hare

Or: it's better to chew one's paw off than to loose the entire body. Geoff Reiss resumes this principle in his 213 pages book "Project Management Demystified - Today's Tools & Techniques", E & FN Spon, (Chapman & Hall), 1993. I agree with you Mr. Nicol, but in how many Organizations is a "merciful" project killer to be found? May be ISO 9001:2015 will include a clause 7.3.8 - Project Euthanasia. Thank you.

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