Save the project: the most important questions
It just so happened that for the last couple of years I have been working a lot with crisis projects. These are projects in which money is spent, goals are not achieved, all deadlines are violated many times, the manager was fired or he escaped in horror, and the level of motivation of the team is nowhere below. In general, the materialized fuck up. Unfortunately, most of these projects can not be simply closed - they are all important to the customer.
There is such a term - "point of no return", often used in engineering, especially in aviation. For an aircraft in flight, this is a point on the route, starting from which there will not be enough fuel on board to return to the departure aerodrome or go to the reserve one. The point of no return is reached, for example, when the plane flies over the ocean for a long time.
Such a term can be applied to project management - starting from a certain moment it is easier to start a new project than to try to save an old one. The available resources (time, people, money) - the main project "fuel" - will not be enough to change the course of the project. Crisis projects, as a rule, have already passed the point of no return or are very close to it.
What to do if you are unlucky, and you got a crisis project? First, do not be discouraged, it is still meaningless. :-) Perhaps, as a new person, you will have a fresh idea that will allow you to find an island in the ocean with a spare airfield. Secondly, we must understand that now thisaircraft dump truck with manure - only your concern. The previous manager sits at home and sends out a resume, so he is not concerned about your problems. Soon everyone will forget about this manager, and now everyone will associate a bad project with you. Therefore, it is in your interest to correctly and quickly understand the essence of the project, take control of its remnants as soon as possible and bring the matter to the end (preferably, the most successful end, and not the end to which the previous manager brought it).
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In order for this process to have at least some chance of success, you need to start correctly. As they say on the other side of the ocean, a good beginning is half the battle. They will help to begin the answers to the following questions correctly:
What is this project about, what is its essence? What problems will be solved if the project is completed? A small description is enough, from which it is clear what exactly they wanted to do and what problem to solve.
What business goals does the project pursue, are there measurable indicators of these business goals? The business goal should be expressed in numbers, for example: “After the launch of the new site, sales of color TVs in our Moscow store will grow by no less than 10% per month (in product units).”
Who is the project customer? Who initiated the project, who really needs it? If the project is not needed by anyone, and the customer is not identified, then such a project should not be carried out.
Who are project stakeholders? It's time to draw a matrix of support and influence . Most likely, a situation has already developed on the project in which politics takes up most of its time and effort. It is necessary to study the map of political forces and currents and, if necessary, try to change it.
What are the consequences of a project failure? There are situations when the results of the project are simply irrelevant - you can safely close it, the money will be more whole.
Who is the project sponsor? With the most important project figure, you need to establish close contact and support.
Who is on the project steering committee, and were there regular committee meetings? If the management committee does not know anything about the project, this situation should be urgently changed. The project, which no one knows, no one supports, so it is not surprising that he is in this ... Well, you understand.
Who is part of the project team? You will laugh, but there are situations when people have been working in a project for months and have no idea about it.
Is the team able to cope with the task, can you affect its composition? If you work in a matrix structure , it is unlikely, but it is always better to check.
What is the purpose of the project, does everyone understand it? Are the criteria for achieving the goal formulated? They did not formulate and did not communicate the goal of the project to the team - say goodbye to the hope for a positive result.
Are the project limitations formulated? Perhaps you are not expected of the results to which you are going; no one manages the expectations of the customer. The result - a disappointed customer who can not pass the project.
Is the composition of the project's tasks defined, is there a schedule, detailed enough to complete these tasks? Are there in the plan tied to tasks executives and deadlines for the execution of tasks? If there is no plan, then it is generally not clear how the project was executed. When auditing a schedule, pay attention to the following:
Is there a risk list and risk management plan? The question is rhetorical. It is clear that there is no risk management plan - otherwise the project would hardly have become a crisis. Well, it's time to compile a risk register and a management plan for them.
What we have with the plan (and fact) of the project budget? It would be good to compose it, and at the same time to check that everything is all right with the payment of bills, the spending of funds and, most importantly, the project will be funded.
Actually, everything. Now you can enlist the support of influential stakeholders and get down to business - to save the project. :-)
What is important - the above described can be successfully applied not only when working with crisis projects, but also simply when auditing a third-party project, as well as when accepting and transferring a project in a non-crisis state.
Of course, there are millions of projects for which the fulfillment of these conditions is optional. Perhaps you pull out a disastrous project on your intuition, experience and luck. But why risk if you can reduce these risks?
There is such a term - "point of no return", often used in engineering, especially in aviation. For an aircraft in flight, this is a point on the route, starting from which there will not be enough fuel on board to return to the departure aerodrome or go to the reserve one. The point of no return is reached, for example, when the plane flies over the ocean for a long time.
Such a term can be applied to project management - starting from a certain moment it is easier to start a new project than to try to save an old one. The available resources (time, people, money) - the main project "fuel" - will not be enough to change the course of the project. Crisis projects, as a rule, have already passed the point of no return or are very close to it.
What to do if you are unlucky, and you got a crisis project? First, do not be discouraged, it is still meaningless. :-) Perhaps, as a new person, you will have a fresh idea that will allow you to find an island in the ocean with a spare airfield. Secondly, we must understand that now this
')
In order for this process to have at least some chance of success, you need to start correctly. As they say on the other side of the ocean, a good beginning is half the battle. They will help to begin the answers to the following questions correctly:
What is this project about, what is its essence? What problems will be solved if the project is completed? A small description is enough, from which it is clear what exactly they wanted to do and what problem to solve.
What business goals does the project pursue, are there measurable indicators of these business goals? The business goal should be expressed in numbers, for example: “After the launch of the new site, sales of color TVs in our Moscow store will grow by no less than 10% per month (in product units).”
Who is the project customer? Who initiated the project, who really needs it? If the project is not needed by anyone, and the customer is not identified, then such a project should not be carried out.
Who are project stakeholders? It's time to draw a matrix of support and influence . Most likely, a situation has already developed on the project in which politics takes up most of its time and effort. It is necessary to study the map of political forces and currents and, if necessary, try to change it.
What are the consequences of a project failure? There are situations when the results of the project are simply irrelevant - you can safely close it, the money will be more whole.
Who is the project sponsor? With the most important project figure, you need to establish close contact and support.
Who is on the project steering committee, and were there regular committee meetings? If the management committee does not know anything about the project, this situation should be urgently changed. The project, which no one knows, no one supports, so it is not surprising that he is in this ... Well, you understand.
Who is part of the project team? You will laugh, but there are situations when people have been working in a project for months and have no idea about it.
Is the team able to cope with the task, can you affect its composition? If you work in a matrix structure , it is unlikely, but it is always better to check.
What is the purpose of the project, does everyone understand it? Are the criteria for achieving the goal formulated? They did not formulate and did not communicate the goal of the project to the team - say goodbye to the hope for a positive result.
Are the project limitations formulated? Perhaps you are not expected of the results to which you are going; no one manages the expectations of the customer. The result - a disappointed customer who can not pass the project.
Is the composition of the project's tasks defined, is there a schedule, detailed enough to complete these tasks? Are there in the plan tied to tasks executives and deadlines for the execution of tasks? If there is no plan, then it is generally not clear how the project was executed. When auditing a schedule, pay attention to the following:
- The schedule should be relevant. If in May you see a plan that has not been updated since January, something is wrong here. The frequency of updating the schedule depends on the project (or on the project phase) and, as a rule, varies from daily to weekly updates.
- Each task in the schedule has one and only one performer, with a specific last name. If the surname in front of the task is not worth it, the task will never be completed, because no one is responsible for it. The same sad result will be if, instead of the artist’s last name, there are several last names in the plan, a “responsible unit” or a company name.
- In the schedule there should be no tasks longer than three days. Long tasks tend not to start, their start is always postponed due to some trifles. They stretch endlessly and usually do not end. If something went wrong (or rather, when everything went wrong), you just do not have time to react and return the project to the right direction. The project becomes uncontrollable, and you turn into a statistician, who is forced to look at long tasks with anguish, until the completion of which there is still a whole month. So long tasks should be divided into subtasks lasting no more than three days.
Is there a risk list and risk management plan? The question is rhetorical. It is clear that there is no risk management plan - otherwise the project would hardly have become a crisis. Well, it's time to compile a risk register and a management plan for them.
What we have with the plan (and fact) of the project budget? It would be good to compose it, and at the same time to check that everything is all right with the payment of bills, the spending of funds and, most importantly, the project will be funded.
Actually, everything. Now you can enlist the support of influential stakeholders and get down to business - to save the project. :-)
What is important - the above described can be successfully applied not only when working with crisis projects, but also simply when auditing a third-party project, as well as when accepting and transferring a project in a non-crisis state.
Of course, there are millions of projects for which the fulfillment of these conditions is optional. Perhaps you pull out a disastrous project on your intuition, experience and luck. But why risk if you can reduce these risks?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/136570/
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