Diverging a little from the due diligence side towards the integration end, picture yourself near the end of the integration work. You new customers have been migrated over. Everything is conveyed and ready to go even with the few hiccups along the way.

How did you track those hiccups, and what are the post-integration next steps?

For most PMs, they have this concept of a RID log: risks, incidents, and defects, where these kinds of issues are tracked, and when severe enough, raised up to the executive team. Yet, what happens when your integration team incurs some tech debt to get the integration across the finish line, and is dissolved? Are they presented at project close-out, and then forgotten. Put onto a Jira board for a project that no longer exists, or added to a backlog that may address it the Tuesday before never?

Taking on additional debt to complete things is normal, and to be expected. However it still has to be repaid. Either when your team still has some control over the outcome, or later when your newly acquired customers start using the conveyed applications, and you take the reputation hit when the world melts down.

How adequate is this backlog of outstanding issues, and who’s responsible for fixing them when the dance is done?