Business Casual

A year or so ago, I worked on what I thought would be one of the easier and more fun projects that I would get in a while. This project was actually even given to me with the intention of being something that I could use to wind down from some other high maintenance projects I had just finished. The project was going to use newer technology, and I was pretty much given free reign to manage over it myself. It seemed like a great setup.

Of course, like most projects, numerous complications arose. What was supposed to be a quick 2-3 week project actually took closer to 5 months after all the issues were worked out. And then, when the project was finally rolled out, it was a good day. The users really liked the new features. Time was being saved. And I felt, even with all of the troubles that arose, like I had contributed something worthwhile.

Then, to take another twist in the project's life, the vendor that I spend so much time integrating into our system was suddenly replaced by another vendor. After only a month or so of production use, the project was, in essence, useless. The whole experience was the inspiration behind this comic.

So what does all that mean? I said all of that to get to the main issue. For me, I have a hard time looking at this project as anything other than a failure. The project, while directly influenced by multiple complications from outside sources, went on for far too long. Then, the actual savings from the use from the completed project didn't nearly meet the cost of the actual time spent. I just can't wrap my head around this as being a positive notch in my belt.

However, when I recently discussed the project with my manager, it was listed as one of the main highlights of the past year for me. The manager complimented me on how I took over all of the correspondence between the parties, and how I continually kept everyone informed of the status of the project. My manager was impressed how I was able to juggle the users, business interest, and outside vendors. While in my mind, many of my other contributions during the past year seemed weightier, this was the project that was tabbed as the high point.

And that's the reason for the title of this post. While you may personally see a project as a failure because of the issues and problems that arose, be aware that there may be actual good under those storm clouds. Just because the actual project may be a financial failure doesn't mean that an employee failed because he worked on the project. That's the distinction I guess I need to learn to make.