From time to time projects run into difficulty, depending on the root causes, it can be quite difficult for an in-house team to resolve; if it were not, the difficulty would probably not have arisen in the first place.
The signs that a project will become challenged or is not performing are often there long before they become critical. If you see any of the following prompt intervention will save time and money:
- time and cost estimates have been revised down several times with no reduction in scope, complexity or increase in resource
- the project plan has been developed by one person or one department in isolation of other stake holders and contributors
- the project plan is not detailed but high level
- aspects of the project are new either in the technology being deployed or way in which users will work but there is no allocated time for training
- format of weekly, monthly project reporting changes each time
- additional requirements and tasks appear on the project reports at regular intervals with no change to the completion date or increase in resource or costs
- time for testing is being cut to meet deadlines
- staff appear to be working excess hours, staying late, coming in early, working at weekends. While some additional working is normal it should not be sustained over long periods
- almost always there will be chatter, rumblings that things are not as they should be
The longer a project is permitted to drift the more difficult and ultimately expensive it is to correct. Once identified as a problem prompt action saves time and money.
The fact is, most projects that go off the rails do so not because of some big event, but the accumulation of lots of small events. The subtle signs of a project running into trouble are usually their well before the issues manifest as visible and obvious problems.
So what happens when you come to us with a problem project?
The first thing we do is carry out a project review to establish the status and issues. We provide a detailed report to the management team with preliminary proposals. If the decision is to recover the project and we are engaged to assist, we work with the project team, and management to draw up a detailed recovery plan and then step through that plan working with the project team to the point of completion.