I lost my contract this week. A narrowing of scope. A bit of internal restructuring. The kind of small shift that leaves no room for a tech lead who only joined the project a few months ago.
It stings a bit, of course, but not in a way that surprises me any longer. I’ve been in the the game long enough to know that not every project will cross the finish line and make it into production. Sometimes, it’s not even a matter of tripping before the ribbon, it’s that someone quietly packs away the course and decides that the race never needed to be run in the first place.
This got me reflecting on some of the other projects that I’ve worked on that never saw the light of day, or really ought not to have. Not with bitterness — I have no regrets. But with the clarity of hindsight, and a dash of that particular British affection for noble failures.
Euro Planning
Do you remember those early years of the first Blair government when it seemed genuinely possible that the UK might join the single european currency? I do. I spent many months at Halifax bank (as it was then) preparing for that very eventuality. Specifically I was exploring ways that their IBM mainframe systems might be adapted to run in dual currencies during a transition period, using the kind of techniques that I had experienced during the Year 2000 migration work. I was particularly proud of a proof of concept involving using the final nibble of an EBCDIC packed decimal number to represent the currency as well as the sign.
Of course, in the end the political mood moved away from closer integration with Europe. As the dotcom boom was peaking, I was shuffled onto a project to create current account systems for Intelligent Finance, Halifax’s short-lived internet banking offshoot. All those accounts are now closed.
DECE Ultraviolet
The dream was a unified cloud-based digital film locker for consumers. The reality was a DRM-laden mess involving multiple Hollywood studios and electronics manufacturers. I spent weeks working on a proof of concept to integrate FilmFlex systems with the DECE Ultraviolet ecosystem. I think the only people who truly understood the concept were those who were building it — and I’m not convinced that they were always sure. Eventually, Disney bailed, Apple never played ball, and the whole thing died a quiet death. I gained an appreciation for user-centred design by seeing what happens when industries totally ignore it.
Bespoke Service Tracker
We didn’t quite build a service tracking system from scratch, but nor did we sensibly just buy one and use it in the way it was intended. Instead, we purchased a product and then proceeded to contort it beyond recognition: hacking away at the SQL Server backend, bolting on custom stored procedures, and building a separate web-based front-end exposing just enough functionality to justify our time. It was nasty, brittle, and about as maintainable as a sandcastle in a storm.
This was an internal project, and with hindsight, probably existed as much to keep some folk occupied while on “the bench” as much as to solve any real business need. When a recession loomed, it wasn’t entirely shocking to be shown the door. I learned a lot about the build/buy tradeoff, and the dangers of over-customising off-the-shelf systems in inappropriate ways.
Canned Call Centre Rebuild
A short stint on a project to build a call centre system for a major mobile phone network operator. Alarm bells should have started ringing from day one when the supplier was reluctant to provide our development team with computers. Or desks, chairs, and office space. I barely had time to learn the acronyms before the shutters came down. Not every gig gets a second act.
I’m not being cynical. I genuinely don’t regret the time I spent on these projects. Even the ones that failed have taught me valuable things — about technology, about organisations, about myself.
Here’s the thing to remember about contract work in particular: you are, in a sense, the risk capital. Organisations will make use of you to try out things they’re not quite sure about. They bring in temporary firepower to experiment, prototype, push things forward. It can be fun, and it can involve cutting-edge technologies and aggressive deadlines — I’ve been on multiple projects that arose as a result of M&A activity where we had deadlines laid down by the Competition and Markets Authority. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, well, the end is usually brisk. That’s the deal.
If you’re going to be delighted by the ease of getting hired to build something shiny and new, you’d better make your peace with the ease of being fired too. Them’s the breaks.
Not every IT project is meant to change the world. Some are meant to test the waters, stir the pot, or keep people treading water while the organisation figures out what it’s doing. And that’s fine. Because in the long arc of a career, even the false starts have their value — in the moment, and in what they teach you for next time.
Cover photo by Antoine Beauvillain on Unsplash