Putting a Project On-Hold, pros and cons, how much to accept a cost increase?

Muchas gracias Sergio,

En este caso aplica

¿ Tiene sentido estratégico, técnico, financiero ? SI,
¿ Se obtiene la calidad esperada ? SI hasta ahora lo que se ha evaluado.
¿ Tenemos el dinero y gente disponible ? SI:
Prioridad alta, entonces Continue, pero hay dependencias externas que lo impiden.
Prioridad baja, entonces Hold, Es prioridad Alta
Que un proyecto pase a Hold no quiere decir que ocasiones mayores costos. De hecho, no deberia ser asi.... Coincido totalmente aunque se perdería lo invertido hasta ahora mientras se define si continua, pero al no haber recursos asignados no debería haber mayor costo o incrementos.

Saludos cordiales,

I'd be cautious with the inherent risk associated. What will the cost of delay be? Will the same team be available once the project begins again? With the intent of the project remain viable? Should the project be postponed or canceled?

Questions to consider....

Project can be halted due to several internal as well as external reasons/factors and the its halting declaration clauses can be defined in its plan or contract .Putting a project on hold have many pros & cons. In my opinion i summarize few below:

Pro: 1-No further Cost and resources to be invested. May be some minor cost involved in post halt review & monitoring.
2- Manpower, Equipment & other resources engaged on Project can be diverted to other projects or objectives
3- Time to review & decide on the Business Case, feasibility & Alignment of Project its strategic objectives.

Cons:1- Lost of Key Project Team, historical data or information due to any reason during halt.
2-Increase in Cost of Project due to Inflation or any other change of external condition.i.e. Economic, Legal , Approval & Permits
3- Any contractual , legal or Statutory repercussion of Project halting decision.

Increase in cost due Project on hold can be defined in contract or if not then should be evaluated on the basis of actual factors therein.i.e. Inflation, Imposition of taxes, new requirements introduced. One party can claim Idle charges also if it has kept resources on hold.

Dear Mario,
Not an easy question, but depending on situations, the best is to finish the project or close out, on hold can cost a huge money
Thanks
Hamid

In my world, there are a few reasons we put projects on hold. I work on In-Building Cellular projects, so we've had instances where the customer contracts with us to do the work, awards us a PO, but then is unable to gain access or agreement from the venue to allow them/us to do our work. So we keep it on our books as something that "might" happen, and do regular check-ins with the customer via email. We don't assign resources or expend time on projects like this.

We have another flavor of "on hold" in that we've done our work, and we're waiting on customer response. In essence we are still "working" the project because we have to do follow-ups frequently to nudge them to respond/accept. In that case, it's more that the project team is on hold, rather than the project itself.

The other reasons projects can be put on hold is simply because we can't accomplish the work at this time due to resources or access or lack of documentation, but we can schedule it for a month from now.


1) the customer is waiting