Ok, here's the deal : I've been at my current workplace for almost 9 years, way too long i'm sure. Most of my time relates to one system slightly older than that, written mostly in vb6 and using Crystal 8.5 and SQL Server 2000. It's finally due to be replaced, but they keep slashing the budget for it and training and other things with the result that i'm sure it'll be a farce I want no part of. However, as i'm so closely linked to this system they say they can't easily move me to something else, especially some other big projects using new technology. So i'm only able to advise on those and act as a kind of knowledge guy to all the systems, basically a helping mind. Question is, how can I persuade them to move me to the other projects? I'm almost at the point of refusing to do any significant work on the rewrite of my system - I genuinely don't want anything to do with it anymore as it's got Doomed Project written all over it. I'm concerned it's already damaged my career working on it as long as I have. Short version : how to escape a doomed project and move to a good one?
How's your rapport with your boss? It sounds like it might be time to have a talk with him or her, and possibly contemplate moving on...
This post has get a new job written all over it. I just quit one so I know.
The old project seems to be running fine still, so its not like you're abandoning your post if you quit. Let them know you're adamant about working on other projects or you'll be forced to leave.
One thing that I wouldn't do is refuse to do work. You have identified in your post that your company thinks your talents are best suited for the project you are on. If you refuse to do that, they would have a reason to let you go, and potentially for cause, which might mean that you wouldn't get severance pay.
The best way to move to a new project is to discuss your desire to move to other projects with your boss. You have been there for 9 years, he should at least listen. If he lets it go, don't stop. In your weekly 1-1 status meeting (if you don't have one yet, set one up for this purpose) continually remind him that you've put your time in, you have a lot to offer, etc. Be persistent. If he thinks you are being a pain, he might just offer you a package to leave.
As it happens, this IS a good time to be looking for a new job -- I would not have said that even a couple months ago, but now the really smart high-tech shops are smelling spring in the air and scrambling to ramp up hiring again after many months of frozen or near-frozen hiring or even layoffs. I can tell by several tell-tale signs -- some places doubling employee referral bonuses, annoying phone calls and other outreach attempts towards me by recruiters and head-hunters who (after years of trying) had left me more or less alone for the last year or so, interviewing-related workload growing again after a year or so of relative calm -- all signs point the same way... Silicon Valley (mostly, in my case -- but I doubt this is a regionally limited phenomenon) IS scrambling to hire again.
This may matter because far too many firms are dysfunctionally ossified -- there's no way out of a project, department, manager, or role, that you want to leave, except out of the firm altogether. Furthermore: in the past, when I've presented my resignation to whoever was my current employer at the time, almost invariably I've seen said employer scrambling to make counter-offers they apparently just wouldn't consider until and unless it was sharply clear to them that the only alternative was having me jump ship (probably to some competitor;-). In fact, sometimes I've accepted such counter-offers (though not always with happy outcomes in the long run, but, that's another story;-).
So, given how you describe your current situation, you MUST look for alternatives elsewhere, either to TAKE those alternatives (which might well be more alluring than whatever you're doing AND earning now, btw;-), or at least to force a counter-offer by your present firm that might well make your situation much better.
It's sad that it can come to that, but, alas, too many firms just don't leave you many other options!-)