Project Rescue
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by Eduard Hernandez
Uniting the passion for writing and project management
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It is not uncommon that a Project Manager leaves a company or gets reassigned to another duty or department within the organization. His project(s) are then typically reassigned to another willful PM... and handover begins.
Not sure about what statistics say, but I might not be too far from the truth when claiming that more than 50% of handed over projects suffer from some sort of disfunctionalities. The incoming PM is then on a mission: project rescue.
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1. Cross-check
Do not assume that the leaving PM will have a full insight on the real project status at the moment of handover. Double check all assumptions and factual information with suitable stakeholders. It is a sort of scope validation, extended version. Rebaseline - following change management processes in place - as needed.
2. Shine
Let's face it. In some occasions the leaving PM has not done such a good job. Could be due to a poor communication with team members, failed to deliver or just because (s)he did an overall sloppy job. Similarly to when a soccer coach is dismissed and the incoming coach has to deal with the exact same players, the newly appointed PM has a good opportunity to set the bar higher and shine. Raising the stamina level in the project, providing assertive guidance to the team and fueling communication are three actions that typically lead to a postive outcome.
3. Reward
Like retired United States Marine Corps warrant officer Woody Williams said "Good leaders do not take on all the work themselves; neither do they take all the credit." Project has been rescued, but this is not a one (wo)man show. Make sure that everyone that has contributed to its success gets the well deserved recognition and feel proud of the work done.
Posted on: February 21, 2020 05:29 AM |
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Comments (8)
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Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Eduard
Interesting your perspective on the topic: "Project Rescue"
Thanks for sharing and for some tips to take into account when we have to rescue a project
Drew Craig
Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard
Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Thank you, Eduard. Could also just as easily be the opposite; current PM is amazing, next PM is not, i.e, opposite of rescue :)
Also, a seemingly too often lost aspect is the impact on the team and stakeholders from the overall change perspective.
Eduard Hernandez
Community Champion
Product Operations Program Manager
Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Thank you for the feedback.
@Andrew, it could indeed be that the incoming PM manages to destroy the good work of the previous practitioner. Regain confidence in the project and become a reliable lighthouse to navigate the team in the middle of the storm is a must in a succesful project rescue.
SUNNY UDOH
Project Management Consultant, PMP,PROSCI, CBAP,MoP,P3O,MSP,PRINCE2,ITIL,B.Sc.| IMRIS CONSULTING INC
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Thanks for sharing. I like the final point of recognising everyone that has contributed to the success achieved by the project so far.
Alexandre Costa
Scrum Master| Integer Consulting - Pictet technologies
Loures, Portugal
Eduard,
Thanks for sharing this interesting topics. I understand perfectly your approach. But if you predict that it's impossible to rescue the project (in presented the constrains cost, schedule, quality), what would be your approach ? Do you refuse the project , do you accept anyway and then negotiate new constrains?
Alexandre
Eduard Hernandez
Community Champion
Product Operations Program Manager
Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Alexandre, thanks for your comment. Before taking any decision I'd go to the project sponsor and review the business case. Then project constraints, assumptions, budget, etc. are revisited. Upon gaining clarity of the actual situation and path forward rebaseling could be considered.
Rejecting a project would be an option in case that an agreement could not be reached with the sponsor or the steering committee. So far, I have never had to reject a project.
Dear Eduard,
Without dwelling on the past too much you need to examine the reasons why the project manager left the project in the first place as this will you a quick insight into what is wrong with the project in the first place that it needs to be rescued.
A lot of project managers time in some environments is spent plaumausing everybody in the project just to keep the wheels of the project turning. This is especially obvious in very political organization. If you do not grease up the right person then this can have disastrous consequences.
Also when a project manager joins a project team after a departing project manager it is not the simple case of picking up the reins and carrying on as business normal.
Something is fundamentally wrong with the project structure and implementation and a new pair of eyes should perform route branch analysis in order to see what has gone wrong and plan a course of action on how to rectify the situation.
Just injecting new blood into the project management office is not good enough to correct the problems as this momentum will fizzle out quickly and the original problems will reemerge.
Daire
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Interesting, as Andrew mention, it could be the other way. I was once in a project that changed the PM 3 times, for various reasons I would not have say that one was better than the other all had different styles.
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