Episode 15 - How Projects Fail in the Handover (Even When Delivery Was “Successful”)

A project can be delivered on time, on budget, and to scope and still fail once it enters real operations. In this episode, we explore why handover is often the hidden failure point in projects, and why “definition of done” is incomplete if it ends at acceptance paperwork. I unpack transition to service as a system covering operational readiness gates, training as a risk control, hypercare planning, and the post-go-live metrics that actually matter. Using a real-world style example of a system accepted on paper but unworkable in daily use, this episode shows how leaders can close the gap between delivery success and operational success.Key references:AXELOS / itSMF UK — Introductory Overview of ITIL 4 UK Government Digital Service — How the live phase works (Service Manual, 8 May 2019) UK Government Digital Service — Service assessments and applying the Service Standard ISO — ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 Systems and software engineering — System life cycle processes SEBoK — System Transition ISO — ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2017 Software life cycle processes (catalog entry) ISO — ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 Service management system requirements (catalog entry) Project Management Institute — The importance of closing the process group (PMI.org) Forsgren, Humble, Kim — Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps