Project Management

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Problem In The Middle of Project

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SHADAV MOHAMMAD ANSARI PMO| ITC INFOTECH INDIA PVT. Ltd. New Delhi, Delhi, India
You are Project Manager and working on a major project and are halfway through when you realize that you have made a mistake that requires you to go back to the beginning to fix it. How do you handle that while still trying to make your deadline?
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Shadav -

Same as you would any other major issue on a project. Meet with the team, develop options and a recommendation and then pitch it to your sponsor & key stakeholders.

In some cases, cutting scope might be required to achieve a minimally acceptable set of deliverables by the deadline. Or you could ignore Fred Brooks' warning and just add many more people to the team and hope that you can still deliver the originally approved scope.

And once the dust has settled, some root cause analysis is likely warranted into why the problem occurred to begin with...

Kiron
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Eduard Hernandez
Community Champion
Product Operations Program Manager Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain
I have faced a similar situation but in which the Sponsor realised that the mistake was done during the business case conception. In this case, the PM is also asked to meet with the team and analyse the validity of the work carried out thus far and impact of potential major change of scope would have on timelines. Business Analyst or Program Manager are in charge of simultaneously assessing impact on BC figures.
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1 reply by Ajifowoke Olakunle
Mar 10, 2019 11:42 AM
Ajifowoke Olakunle
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What if the mistakes had caused you your job? What would you do or What would you have done differently?
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Binu Samuel Project Manager | Rosa Carolina Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India
Good information
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SHADAV MOHAMMAD ANSARI PMO| ITC INFOTECH INDIA PVT. Ltd. New Delhi, Delhi, India
Thanks for sharing your views.
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Ajifowoke Olakunle Ketu, Lagos, Nigeria
This is a very realistic question and am still expecting more responses
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Ajifowoke Olakunle Ketu, Lagos, Nigeria
Mar 10, 2019 4:08 AM
Replying to Eduard Hernandez
...
I have faced a similar situation but in which the Sponsor realised that the mistake was done during the business case conception. In this case, the PM is also asked to meet with the team and analyse the validity of the work carried out thus far and impact of potential major change of scope would have on timelines. Business Analyst or Program Manager are in charge of simultaneously assessing impact on BC figures.
What if the mistakes had caused you your job? What would you do or What would you have done differently?
...
1 reply by SHADAV MOHAMMAD ANSARI
Mar 12, 2019 12:52 AM
SHADAV MOHAMMAD ANSARI
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In this case , it will be very painful but i have to fix the problem only.
it can provide a learning opportunity for any other people I might be working with who are in similar situations or dealing with similar scenarios
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SHADAV MOHAMMAD ANSARI PMO| ITC INFOTECH INDIA PVT. Ltd. New Delhi, Delhi, India
Mar 10, 2019 11:42 AM
Replying to Ajifowoke Olakunle
...
What if the mistakes had caused you your job? What would you do or What would you have done differently?
In this case , it will be very painful but i have to fix the problem only.
it can provide a learning opportunity for any other people I might be working with who are in similar situations or dealing with similar scenarios
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Larry Miner Founder and Sr. Project Management of Decision Memory Systems| Decision Memory Systems Bath, Oh, United States
I had an issue along these lines. Microsoft provide my organization with a development language that was not ready for use in a real time environment. It took the team 6 - 8 weeks to come to the decision that we just could not rely on it. I stop the project, asked the developers to select a mature language and met with the client, the customer, explaining every single issue. We made them part of the decision making process. We then started over. The project was a great success with the software/system being used for another 20 years. Just be honest and practical in how you're going to eat the cost or if possible spread it around.

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