No project manager likes to be on a failing project or to take over a failing project – unless they like the Superman complex of coming in to try to save the day. But it’s a reality of the project management profession…more projects will fail than succeed. Various surveys have found that anywhere from 50-75% of all projects fail to some degree…either based on some degree of budget failure, schedule failure, customer satisfaction failure or just simply the inability to deliver on the planned solution.
What we must do, then, is plan for how we will deal with issues and risks on our projects and have some key strategies in place for turning around those projects that seem to be heading south fast. While the specific ways of fixing a failing project will depend on the actual issues at hand, I’ve found that three general, innovative strategies can be followed with a good degree of success in helping the project manager get to the heart of the issues, improve their situation with a dissatisfied client, or get the cooperation needed from those involved on the project to get the project back on track with varying degrees of cost and effort.
What we must do, then, is plan for how we will deal with issues and risks on our projects and have some key strategies in place for turning around those projects that seem to be heading south fast. While the specific ways of fixing a failing project will depend on the actual issues at hand, I’ve found that three general, innovative strategies can be followed with a good degree of success in helping the project manager get to the heart of the issues, improve their situation with a dissatisfied client, or get the cooperation needed from those involved on the project to get the project back on track with varying degrees of cost and effort.
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