A compensating transaction doesn't necessarily return the data in the system to the state it was in at the start of the original operation. Instead, it compensates for the work performed by the steps that completed successfully before the operation failed.

The order of the steps in the compensating transaction doesn't necessarily have to be the exact opposite of the steps in the original operation. For example, one data store might be more sensitive to inconsistencies than another, and so the steps in the compensating transaction that undo the changes to this store should occur first.

Placing a short-term timeout-based lock on each resource that's required to complete an operation, and obtaining these resources in advance, can help increase the likelihood that the overall activity will succeed. The work should be performed only after all the resources have been acquired. All actions must be finalized before the locks expire.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/patterns/compensating-transaction