I must agree that with those that have said if the customer isn't happy, the project has failed. You have to accept that you are sometimes going to be assigned to projects that fail. That doesn't mean you are personally a failure. Ultimately, however, there is one criteria for success and that's a happy customer/end user. The project at the HMO was most certainly an abject failure and the resources devoted to the generation of the single report at the software firm are ludicrous.