Project End of Life

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A product is never finished. That’s how software products work. There will always be a new feature, an improvement, a bugfix, a refactor, etc.

It makes sense for a client to take over product development when it is mature enough and once they have built the internal capabilities required to develop and maintain their product.

Project Ending Rationale

As part of starting the handing process over a project, it is important to:

  • Inform the client formally about the end of the project.
  • Share internally the reason(s) why the project is ending.

Here are the most common cases:

  • The project is ending as per the contract dates.
  • The project is ending because the team has delivered the product per the agreed scope.
  • The project is ending because the client is out of budget or shifting focus.

Handover

Each project is different and relies on various third-party tools and services. There are, however, a few things that tend to be common to all projects: the code versioning process, the CI/CD workflow, the use of third-party tools, servers to manage, and more.

During a handover period, here are the things to look for and the things to transfer over to the client.

  • Code repositories (CI/CD setup might need to be updated following the transfer),
  • Product documentation,
  • Technical documentation,
  • Product management tool,
  • Servers,
  • CI/CD tools (MacStadium, Bitrise, etc.),
  • Third-party services credentials.

Handover Guidelines