Is Your Project Missing A Management Stage?

What happens when you find a stage of the project management process has been missed? Here is some useful advice from EasyPM.

The scenario is the "project from hell". The one that everyone in the organisation knows and talks about. It has not been going well and you have been asked (let's say told) to take over the running of it.

Dark days indeed, as you see your annual appraisal and bonus slipping down the drain! No-one can turn that one around, right? So what do you do?

Here are three little things to consider that might help.

1. Ask yourself - Have the right questions been asked and answered?
2. Do you know if there are there techniques that can be applied?
3. What communications and follow up will be required?

Let's put some more detail around this using an example where the "project from hell" had a poorly managed start-up.

Questions you can ask:

• What is this project meant to deliver and can I see the documentation please?
• Have the project objectives document been agreed by senior management in the organisation?
• Is there a stakeholder group?
• Do the stakeholders all have the same expectations of the project?
• Are there inter-dependencies on another project that is causing constraints?
• What investment has been committed to the project?
• Are all the project issues documented, understood and prioritised - can I see that please?
• Who is responsible for starting the project without completing a proper start-up? (Useful to know!).

Techniques you can apply:

• Get the answers to the above questions and any others that help to fill out the project start up information. Do this quickly.
  
• Analyse the information gathered and be clear about the facts your answers present.
  
• Create a presentation that summarises the project status. The presentation should take the form of a simple highlight report that emphasises the difference in where the project thinks it is compared to where it actually is. I have a sample project status summary structure for this on my EasyPM google group - you are welcome to use it.
• Invite the senior managers and stakeholder to a meeting to present your findings.
• Leave the meeting with an agreed plan of action for go forward that provides you with the scope and time to remedy the situation that has caused the stage to be missed. In short ... ask permission to go back to that stage and do it properly ... including creating any missing control documents and getting them signed off! This may of course, lead to discussions on the viability of the project or required contingency planning but that is another story.

Communications you can ... communicate:

• Create a document that summarises the meeting and the next actions.
• Circulate the summary document to an agreed reader list that includes senior mangement, stakeholders, key users, suppliers (if there are any) and the project team.

What about follow up? It is a great idea to create a meeting no more than two weeks in advance to review progress on the agreed project actions. Then repeat the cycle on a weekly basis to get the missing stage back under control.

So what is the lesson here? Well, you wouldn't have a rock band without base or drums would you? You wouldn't build a house without foundations would you? No, of course not. So don't let anyone tell you ... ever ... that a particular project stage is not important or required.

Make sure as a project manager that you have the foundations in place to allow you to build to successful project delivery. Remember - projects are all so much easier to keep control of when everything is in the right place. Gimme a high five!