Searching for Closure

For every beginning there must be an ending, but we don’t like to talk about that, particularly not in the tech industry. There are thousands of books in print about how to start a business, but only a handful about how to pass one on, and many of those are really about how to sell out at the right time.

I have experienced a lot of endings, and the most important thing I’ve learned is that they can be dignified and fulfilling if done well. I also think that preparing for the end can make it less likely, and make what happens before it more enjoyable. However, a lot of people aren’t being given the chance to wind things down gracefully. Between the Trump administration’s attack on science and the cuts big tech companies are making in the name of AI, thousands of people are being given days (or less) to end years of work.

I am therefore assembling material for a half-day workshop on project closure. If you or someone you know has ended a software project or scientific research project, I’d be very grateful if you could spare half an hour for an online interview: you can reach me by email at gvwilson@third-bit.com.

Note: all discussion will be confidential, and everyone interviewed will be able to review and veto anything that mentions them before it is seen by anyone else.

Learner Personas

There are important differences between deliberate closure (shutting a project down of your own accord and on your own timeline), and abrupt closure (shutting it down on short notice under difficult circumstances). This workshop therefore caters to two learner personas.

Vaida

• Vaida, 33, has a PhD in oceanography and now works as a data analyst for the Ministry of the Environment.
• She has been collecting and publishing beach erosion data for the past six years. She also co-founded a volunteer group that teaches environmental science to high school students, and has been its leader for the past five years.
• Vaida is relocating to pursue a new career opportunity, so she wants to wind down her data collection project. She also wants the volunteer group to continue its work, but the only documentation of how it operates is one slide deck and a couple of out-of-date blog posts.
• Vaida is working hard to prepare for her new job, which means only has two or three hours a week for the next couple of months to put into tidying things up.

Liam

• Liam, 41, worked as a civil engineer for almost a decade before becoming a full-time software developer at a company that does contract work modeling slope stability for large construction projects.
• While Liam writes lots of tests and uses Git and GitHub to share work with his colleagues, very little of what he knows about OpenStabil (the company’s open source software package) has ever been written down.
• Liam’s group was acquired by another engineering firm sixteen months ago. After an abrupt change of leadership, the company has decided to merge parts of OpenStabil into a closed-source tool suite and to stop all further development of the open version. Liam has been told to make these changes immediately; after protest, he has been given until the end of the week.
• Liam is deeply invested in the small but tight-knit OpenStabil community, but has a young family at home and doesn’t dare risk being unemployed.