Politics, Process and Projects

 

I don't think it really matters whether your a Republican or a Democrat, it's interesting to watch the implosion of the current Republican primary and not ask if this is a struggling project doomed to fail. Sometimes recognizing when good ideas have gone bad requires that we pull the plug before before too many resources are wasted and there's no way to save the project.

It's not uncommon for project stakeholders to disagree on the focus of any given project, sometimes making it difficult to zero in on objectives and outcomes. I wonder if that's what's going on with this year's primary season?

Most analysts would agree that it would literally take an act of God for either Santorum or Gingrich to win enough delegates to capture the nomination of their party for president. Nevertheless, they (Gingrich and Santorum) continue to badger and attack the front runner, potentially handicapping his ability to face their Democratic rival in the fall. Meanwhile, the President can quietly sit back, raise funds, rally his base and prepare to run against a fractured and disjointed Republican opponent (who will likely be Governor Romney).

If this were a project, I'd probably cut my losses, stop spending millions of dollars on the two losing campaigns and try to rally the troops toward the objective of a victory in the fall. Democrats, on the other hand, are having fun watching the party tear itself apart. I'm really looking forward to the general elections in the fall.

Ideally, the criteria for putting a DOA project out of its misery should be determined prior to the project beginning. What's more, project management best practice suggests that the "firing squad" should be identified before the project begins. Sometimes in the heat of battle, or the primary, it's difficult to dispassionately consider discontinuing a troubled project.

There's seldom a single reason projects fail. Regardless of the reasons, scrapping a doomed project is difficult for most project managers. That being said, I wonder how long it will take before the Republicans pull the plug on the current struggling project we call a primary?

How do you determine when to scrap a lagging project?