DSP 05 / ORIGINAL EDITORIAL
A local demo needs a local exit
A community should know how a tool can pause, export, hand back work, and end without losing the record.
Pilot language often describes how a system starts. A responsible field brief also explains how it stops, what remains, and who carries the work after a vendor, grant, or champion leaves.
List dependencies in plain language
Name the accounts, models, data stores, integrations, payment plans, and people required to operate the workflow. Include the dependency that is easiest to overlook: who understands how the pieces fit together.
Define a hand-back state
The workflow should be able to return to a documented manual or simpler process. Export formats, ownership, retention, and deletion need to be known before the pilot handles meaningful records.
Rehearse the end
Run an exit exercise while the pilot is healthy. Pause the automated step, recover the latest approved state, route work manually, and verify that the community can continue without improvising under pressure.
TAKE TO THE FIELD
Questions before transfer
- Which dependency can stop the workflow?
- Who owns the data and exports?
- What is the manual fallback?
- How is deletion verified?
A project is more portable when its ending is designed at the beginning.