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into four formal types of project endings:

Addition

Starvation

Integration

Extinction

You’ll look at each of these ending types in the following sections.

Addition

Projects that evolve into ongoing operations are considered projects that end because
of addition; in other words, they become their own ongoing business unit or the
product or result of the project transitions into an existing business unit before the

project is completed.

Starvation

When resources are cut off from the project or are no longer provided to the project,
it’s starved prior to completing all the requirements, and you’re left with an unfinished
project on your hands. Starvation can happen for any number of reasons:

Other projects come about and take precedence over the current project, thereby
cutting the funding or resources for your project.

The customer curtails an order.

The project budget is reduced.

A key resource quits.

Resource starving can include cutting back or withholding human resources,
equipment and supplies, or money. In any case, if you’re not getting the people,
equipment, or money you need to complete the project, it’s going to starve and
probably end abruptly.

Integration

Integration occurs when the resources of the project—people, equipment, and supplies
—are distributed to other areas in the organization or are assigned to other projects.
Perhaps your organization begins to focus on other areas or other projects, and the

next thing you know, functional managers come calling to retrieve their resources for
other, more important things. Your project will come to an end because of a lack of
resources because they have been reassigned to other areas of the business or have
been pulled from your project and assigned to another project.

The difference between starvation and integration is that starvation is the

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