I think you raise an important question that all project managers should think about. The viability of a project must be assessed early in the planning process. If you believe the project is unworkable due to finances, schedules, or a lack of employees, you must inform your boss and stakeholders. A project manager must back up a decision to end or continue a project with proof such as previous project data, financial analysis, risk assessments, and expert comments. If a boss/stakeholder insists on moving forward, one must consider renegotiating the project's scope, budget, or workforce. Alternatively, proposing a pilot phase to determine viability might be a good idea. Whatever the outcome, keeping a record of concerns and decisions is important for accountability. If one must proceed with a 'dying' project, I think they must concentrate on optimizing available resources and closely monitoring progress to address difficulties as they happen.

I believe that determining whether a project is feasible or not should occur in the initiating/planning phase where discussion of budgets, tasks, and team members are discussed as you previously mentioned. Also as stated above the project manager should be able to use previous projects as examples of how much money, time, and man power went into the project. With this if stakeholders are not willing to match the previous funding, the project manger can analyze how they could cut budgets in certain places. If it doesn't seem possible at that point a discussion has to occur to see if the budget, time, or etc. can be revised and increased. If this isn't possible I believe the project shouldn't even continue to the next phase (executing) because then both the project team and stakeholders increase the risk of losing money or creating a poorly manufactured product that may not satisfy customer needs.

As the earlier replies by @jj52 and @fh28, the time to identify the project's survivability is during the initiating and planning phase. But to account for situations where, in the case of the pandemic, things occur that no one could've anticipated it is important for PMs to readjust specific phases in relation to another. Seeing the pandemic occur, when to save a project has to occur by the evaluation of the EV and PV to identify the SV (To recall Scheduled Variance (SV) = Earned value (EV) - Planned Value (PV)). Understand market assessment and stake holder viability during unforeseen times will be you indicators to see if the project is dying or worth working towards. Actions such as a Cost-benefit analysis are ideas that spring into my head to what a PM could do as well. 

I think that deciding to give up on a project should happen during the initiating and planning phases. This way we will save the money and the effort we might put in the execution phase. For example, one case where the project can be canceled is  when the given budget doesn’t cover the project expenses, meaning  when expenses exceed more than 50 percent of the initial budget .If a project goes ahead without considering this risk, it may happen that the project is not realized and the funds of money are spent. Sometimes you decide to give up on a project when you gather more than enough data that the customers are no longer interested in the product. In this case the project team or stakeholders might change the scope of the project.  

I think that it makes sense to raise concerns about the feasibility of a project during the initial planning and scoping phases, especially when the project's feasibility study or risk assessment is being conducted. By this point in the project management process, enough information should be gathered about the project's main goals, timeline, budget, and resource constraints to determine whether the project can be realistically executed within those limits. If the team is led to believe that the limits, in which the project has to be executed within, are unrealistic, then it is important to present a detailed analysis, highlighting the key constraints that make it unrealistic. This can include constraints like inadequate budget, insufficient personnel, or unrealistic deadlines. Supporting data, such as comparisons with similar past projects, benchmarks, or industry standards, can also be used to strengthen the assessment because they could potentially demonstrate why the current limitations would lead to failure or compromised quality.

If the manager is in the belief that the project is executable despite the concerns, it’s important to document the risks clearly and suggest potential mitigation strategies. This could include proposing various alternatives, such as adjusting the scope, increasing the timeline, or securing additional resources. If none of these adjustments are possible, ensuring that the risks are formally acknowledged by leadership is essential so that responsibility for any potential failure or challenges is clearly understood. At that point, while continuing the project under the original constraints, frequent progress reviews and risk reassessments should be conducted to manage any arising issues.

This is a very good question as of course, there will always be a 'failing project' that companies  encounter at some point. To answer the question, I'd say yes, this kind of decision should be decided even well before the project is taken on in the initiation phase. 

Depending on the company however, the initiating phase may look different. It's very important to realize that this phase may not even end up involving the project leader who ends up leading the project down the line. Often times, they may be saddled with the project once approved and decided upon by upper management. Additionally, even if the project does start going sideways down the line, there are other constrictions in place often making it impossible to just drop the project. There are contracts in place, sometimes your company may have already bought equipment or hired personnel to help support the project, sometimes you're already receiving equipment or fixturing from the customer intended to be used for the project.  

So even if it's deemed ok from upper management, the project leader may eventually get to the point of realizing the project is not feasible within the execution phase. This can be due to unrealistic timelines, issues with the design or equipment, or even issues with the customer as they change their requirements unexpectedly and more than once midway into the process. There may not be much that can be done if the project is legally bounded, but the project leader can do the best by communicating these issues to key stakeholders and scheduling the project as best as they can with all issues in mind. 

I agree with others comment. However, I want to give my own opinion. From my point of view, it depends on several factors. 1. Escalating budget: if the budget escalates significantly then it is not feasible to complete the project. 2. High risk issue: if any high risk factor arises, then it's better to give up/ 3. Timeline: if the project consistently fails the timeline. Then it will not be feasible to complete the project.  4. Ethical or legal issue: if any ethical problem arises, then the one should give up the project. Moreover, there can be other factors. However, I think they are the significant issue. 

In the Initiating and Planning Phase of a project, it's very important to define the objective. It must meet the needs of the customer, and achieve deliverables. In the initiating phase, it's also important to evaluate all stakeholders (employees, management, team members, clients, etc.). However, along the way, there almost always will be problems encountered. If a problem that causes the project to lose value, it might mean to terminate a project. 

For example, when planning a project, properly estimating costs is critical. The money you make on a project must be greater than the money you put out. If it ends up costing more than the money a company makes, and the company is losing money on the project, it makes sense to terminate the project. Another example would be a sudden loss of major stakeholders. This could be managers, or even major layoffs that sometimes occur when companies loses a lot of money (ex - scandal, losing a lawsuit). In this case, a company might want to change their tactics, which means new projects will be made aimed to fix the cause of major loss, and cancel old projects that would likely cause further loss.

A project should no longer be considered feasible once a team has reached a "dead end" countless times and spent a noteworthy amount of budget in the persuit of the project. The team has also analyzed the possibilities of if they are to continue with the project versus discontinuing the project, and has concluded with substantial evidence that the company would benefit more from discontinuing the project. Ultimately, it is favorable that a project is deemed unfeasible in the early phases of the project planning phase to minimize unnecessary costs and time. Given that the person I am working for encourages me to continue the project event though I believe the project cannot be achieved under the original circumstances put into place, I would propose some adjustments to the project, such as a modified project timeline or budget, that could potentially make the project possible. 

I wanted to start off by saying that there is definitely a point where a project needs to be shutdown. I have owned some businesses in the past 3 years and would like to share a personal experience that I encountered in 2021. I was living in Miami and had a drop-shipping businesses that I was running from a rented warehouse. Looking back, it was not the strongest product and had a temporary "hype" due to a recent social media trend. After our initiating phase, we had creating a marketing budget according to our expenses like inventory, rent, etc. The product was initially selling at an amazing rate, but there reached a point about two months in where we had notice major decline in sales. We decided to try one last hope and pumped a large amount of money into our marketing fund and after nothing came from it, it became time to shut down and give up on the project. After reading a lot of these replies, I agree with a lot of what people had to say when a project becomes a financial burden it is time to shut it down. Unfortunately, I ran into this issue one more time before I learned how to properly prepare for this potential down fall but I am happy I got to experience failure as it taught me a lot.