Post Project Blues

This year I have been embarking on a new project which involved a vegetable garden including varying attempts, some successful, some not so.  A couple of weeks ago I looked over my garden and realised a that it was all coming to an end, tomatoes plants wilting, last or the runner beans and no more peas, boo hoo!

As I looked at what was a fairly pathetic vision I felt a real pang of sadness and this reminded me that this feeling was similar to that which you get at the end of a project following the weeks, and sometimes months of furore leading up to the big release date or grand opening, the daily prayers, amazingly innovative solutioneering, the cry of "We did not know we needed that!", patiently explaining to your sponsor that more scope means more cost and delay and of course more pizza that you shake a stick at.

Then you sit there at your PC at 5pm, your inbox is empty except for a couple of group HR emails, you have the minutes from the post project evaluation report to type up, but they are not needed for a couple of days.  You turn to talk to John and then remember he moved to the 3rd floor to start his new project.

Nothing is keeping you in the office but you feel you should be there, you could be at home but before you leave you check out the internal project roles site on the intranet, this looks interesting project in trouble, ridiculous timelines, funding cut and breaking new ground.  You ring the sponsor and say want to meet to chat about the assignment.

Why do we do that?  Your tired, you have not seen your family much for the past few weeks and you just started the journey to another new whole world of hurt. I think it is the thrill of the game we must all enjoy the exact things that when we get together we all complain about, unreasonable timelines, funding restrictions, unreasonable stakeholders and sponsors and team you just can't get the message to.  We love it, don't we?

Some of you say so what fair enough maybe I am a bit late realising it but better late than never.  Could this be why the post project evaluation is a bit like the green tomatoes left on the vine, a bit of the last project left unfinished or given a bit of lip service because you have started thinking about the next project.

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