10 Steps to Pulling the Plug on an IT Project

Pulling the plug on an IT project before completion is never easy, but it is often the right thing to do when all signs point to eventual failure.

?The problem when you bury, ignore or lie about the state of a project is that you either look dishonest or incompetent,? says Bruce Webster, an IT management expert, author and founder of Webster & Associates. ?It is far better to tell the truth and look for another job than have the project come down in burning ruins about you.?

We asked Webster and other project management experts such as Mike Sisco, president of MDE Enterprises, an IT consultancy and IT management training firm based in Columbia, Tenn., and Steve McConnell, president of the Bellevue, Wash.-based software-development best practices firm Construx Software for their best tips on how to kill the stinkers as gracefully as possible. Here is their collective best advice for pulling the plug on an IT Project.