Practical guide
Money already spent can make a project hard to stop. Review what remains: the useful result, the cost to reach it and the commitments you would need to close. Use four questions and an illustrative example to compare stopping, reducing or continuing the work.
Use the review questions Read the manual it comes from
Why review
The original plan may still be worth finishing. Or new facts may justify a smaller version or a stop. Compare the remaining work and its expected value, including the obligations and costs of changing course.
You do not have to wait for a literal midpoint. Review when a material assumption, requirement, cost or delivery condition changes.
Four review questions
01 · Current position
Compare the work with the agreed completion checks. Record spending, remaining commitments, usable outputs and gaps.
02 · New evidence
Identify a changed requirement, failed assumption or new constraint. Distinguish evidence from discomfort about work still to do.
03 · The choice
Compare the remaining effort, useful result and consequences of each option. Name who can approve the change.
04 · Follow-through
Assign closure or delivery tasks, protect required records and communicate changed commitments. Set the next check if work continues.
Who can use it
Bring the current brief, delivery evidence and remaining commitments into the review. Include the people who will use the result. The sponsor retains the decision and should hear disagreements before approving more work.
Illustrative example
Imagine a project to collect complete order information and transfer it into the delivery system. The form works, but the automatic integration is unfinished. These are fictional alternatives, not client outcomes.
Continue: if the integration is still needed, remaining work is understood and the users can test acceptance, approve that work with a named owner and limit.
Reduce: if an agreed manual transfer serves the current volume, consider releasing the form with that process. Record the ongoing manual cost and the conditions for revisiting automation.
Stop: if the company has adopted another system that makes the form unnecessary, compare reuse and closure options. Resolve supplier and customer commitments before ending the work.
Use the evidence
A difficult phase is not proof that a project is wrong. Check whether the result remains useful and achievable, and whether stopping creates greater cost or harm. Use appropriate specialist advice for technical, contractual or regulated obligations.
Back to the manual →When the work is live
Stan reviews each request for fit. All corporate work starts with an inquiry and is quoted separately. Stan confirms the people, stakes, scope, and fee in writing before work starts. This page provides a review structure; any engagement addresses the actual project under an agreed scope.
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