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The Little Project That Couldn’t, Part 2
Dr. Andrew Makar is an IT program manager and is the author of the Microsoft Project Made Easy series. For more project management advice, visit the website TacticalProjectManagement.com.
You can’t work in this field long without experiencing a project that falters. You can, however, examine and learn from failed projects — your own and your peers' — to avoid some of the same minefields. Here are the final five important lessons learned from a troubled project that held one team meeting in a hospital emergency room.
Part 1 of the “The Little Project That Couldn’t” identified five fundamental lessons learned from a project lacking defined roles, prioritization, consistent project management practices and change control, among other problems. I recognized that I was on a troubled project when one of our key business partners was in a car accident and the entire project team conducted a PowerPoint presentation with projector and laptops in the hospital emergency room!
Still, 10 important lessons learned emerged from “The Little Project That Couldn’t.” Here are #6 through #10.
Lesson Learned #6:
Report objectively and ask for help earlier
A root cause for failing to rescue the troubled project was the delay in communicating problems early on in the project. The project management team painted an overly optimistic view of the project status to senior management. When individual team members finally reached out to other executives for assistance, it was simply too late for the executives assist the project. The …
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Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. - Theodore Roosevelt |