Project Delay Resolution – One Size Doesn’t Fit All
When asked what steps are needed to get a red project back on track, my first thought is that there isn’t a one size fits all answer to that question. Many project managers, including me, would be looking for a new profession if that were the case.
A complete analysis of the project’s history is needed, including a discussion with the team and sponsors to fully understand the current situation and where things started to go sideways. This is the only way I can advise on what is needed to move forward.
While most of these situations occur during project execution, where your risks and impacts are the greatest, you need to look backward. You must see if critical aspects were missed during the initiation phase; a couple of questions to ask are:
Was your project charter fully vetted, including critical topics like scope inclusions and exclusions, roles, the definition of done. . .?
Do you have a documented project management plan? Critical aspects of how the project will be executed are documented here. (See The Other PMP)
These are just a couple of the topics you need to understand in looking back; in some instances, the answer to the questions asked is yes, absolutely; we have a complete set of deliverables that are part of our standard SDLC.
This leads to my next question; are they being strictly followed? At times project audits will highlight that certain aspects are being followed, but others have been neglected. Some things that should be considered during this review are the steps or, more importantly, the missteps that may have occurred during the execution phase. For this part of the review, some things to look at are:
Were there identified risks the team agreed should be tagged to be avoided or were triggers missed? Is the team focusing on the most critical risks? Those are the ones that were identified as high probability and high risk.
Were there breakdowns in communications, either between the sponsors and the project team or between the vendor and the client?
Are all of the agreed upon vendor and client plans being executed, and is there a cross-organizational project plan?
Were there scope increases that were not communicated, and was there a determination of the impact on schedules?
Was a detailed migration plan developed and critical source-to-target trackers created if this a migration effort?
While all of the above are good starting points, one thing I’m not attempting to address in this blog is how we get these projects back into green status.
Why?
Because there isn’t a magic pill that will resolve all your project issues, which is precisely my point; one size doesn’t fit all.
Want assistance in resolving your project delays? Let’s connect.