The latest from Dubai

I have been informed that the project I spent much of my time in Dubai working on last year has been canceled by the client. What a waste of time, money and effort that turned out to be.

To be sure, the project was a huge clusterfuck from the beginning. The client continually altered the agreed-upon schedule, and what was supposed to be a three-month assignment last spring turned into a nine-month quagmire that was finally put out if its misery this month. The client also made constant changes to the project scope and the deliverables required. I was never completely sure what was expected of our work, as our tasks changed from week to week. It didn't help that the client's project manager was a rude and unprofessional buffoon.

The project, however, was ultimately killed by what could only be described as a mind-bogglingly incompetent lack of internal coordination on the part of the client. Apparently, there were elements within the clients' organization that never wanted this project to happen. The managers that were in favor of this project decided to put it out for bid anyway in spite of this opposition. Only after my company was awarded this project and began work on it were we made aware of this internal dissention. Eventually, it became our responsibility to try to "convince" the people in opposition that this was a worthwhile project. The folks in opposition, on the other hand, simply hired a consultant of their own to argue why our project was not necessary. It was a huge mess - one in that we, as design consultant, should never have become involved - and it was finally resolved by the client's CEO, who summarily terminated our project earlier this month.

So that's that. I guess I shouldn't be too bitter - it's not our fault that our client was unorganized and incompetent, and I did get paid for my work - but it is disappointing that all that travel and all that time spent away from Lori and Kirby was essentially for naught.

There is another project in Dubai that I was supposed to be involved in this past year. It's still active, if only in fits and starts, but I'm not optimistic of its long-term viability given Dubai's current economic troubles and my participation in this project is relatively minor in any case. I do not think I will be making any more trips to Dubai just to work on this project.

My company's Dubai office is looking at a couple of projects in Abu Dhabi that might require my participation sometime this year. I'll know more about these projects in the coming weeks, but at this point I'm going to be vary wary of any more long-term assignments overseas.

I certainly don't mind making one or two trips over to the UAE during the course of 2009 - I still want to see Abu Dhabi, after all - but I am simply not going to allow myself to get into the same situation I found myself in last year. Especially given how it all turned out.