PMP Question #008 – A Discontinued Product

During a working group meeting, a stakeholder raises the concern that the product you are working on will be discontinued in 5 months. You were not aware of this and your project budget has already been approved until the scheduled delivery, which is also in 5 months. What should you do next?

What Won’t Work

Keeping the project going and assuming the discontinued product is not your responsibility isn’t the right course of action. This ignores the core issue: if the product is being discontinued, the project may not deliver value.

Changing the project scope to work on a different product so your project remains relevant also isn’t the answer – this completely changes the project and the product. It would require a new business case and new approval.

Asking for additional funding to improve the product simply to prevent discontinuation is unlikely to create business value and is not a project manager’s decision to make.

What You Should Do

Schedule a meeting with the project sponsor immediately. Share the information about the product discontinuation. Present a recommendation to terminate the project.

Why This Matters

As a project manager, your focus must always be on delivering value to the organization. If the product is being discontinued in 5 months, completing a project that supports that product will not deliver value. Continuing to spend time and money on a project that produces obsolete deliverables is not ethical.

Have the difficult conversation with your sponsor. Recommend termination or significant scope changes based on the new business reality.

– David McLachlan

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