Back From the Brink: Saving Failing Projects

  Governance   PM Network  

Failure is not an option.

It certainly sounds like a plan, but getting a project back on track takes more than majestic proclamations. And the odds aren’t exactly on your side. According to The Standish Group, 24 percent of IT projects worldwide in 2008 were either canceled before completion or delivered but never used.

There’s no end to the reasons a project can go woefully off track: market shifts, poor planning, budget cuts, personal conflicts, changing corporate priorities. If a project manager is paying attention, though, the signs are all there—especially those from on high.

“A rapid decline in executive commitment, redirection of funds away from a project or increasing vocal dissatisfaction among the main customers and stakeholders are all ominous signs that a project is failing,” says Alex Julian, PMP, program manager at Resource IT Solutions, São Paulo, Brazil.

Some projects get the ax, while others are marked for rescue. And often, the call on whether the projects should be salvaged has little to do with how well they’re progressing.

“A lot of these decisions are tied to business reasons,” says Brian H. Munroe, PMP, CEO of MTI Learning Inc., a training company in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Projects linked to client requirements or key business or governmental strategies, for example, will …

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