For 5 days I've been the (first) PM of a project that has run for nearly a year. Recommending termination of your own project can be seen positively where I work - so that's just what I did on day 4. That flushed out both the sponsor and the actual need the project must satisfy. As you may guess, that's not where the project team is focussed and project documentation is a bit thin for its current small size. We are by no means failing but the number of people actively engaged has to grow 5x in the next phase so it may fail if things are not tightented up.
There are probably other issues to address as well, and a proper review of the project state is clearly needed. My question to anyone who has taken over a project well past the initiation phase - do you have any thoughts or advice on what to look for and how did you get a broad, balanced view? Saving Changes...
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Russell GeakeProject Management Consultant| Deciduous Partners LtdLostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Toby, lucky you!
There has been some really good discussion on this fairly recently here (which you won't know because you are a new member). I'm trying to find it for you to send you a link, but for now - don't panic! There are a lot of us here who have been in similar situations (it does happen quite a lot in our world) - and I'm sure we're all more than happy to help and put our POV across.
Can I ask how much PM experience you have under your belt? Saving Changes...
I've been a PM for 6 years, but I'm working across to software development from implementation. I've only been brought into PM an existing project once before, but that was and implementation job in excellent shape (bar the communication issues that I was brought into address). Saving Changes...
Hi Toby,
Why not undertake a modified "Post Implementation Review"? That way you get to talk to everyone involved and can identifiy the burning issues that need addressing. As a recognised project management process it will not be seen (hopefully) as a witch hunt but an impartial fact finding exercise with the added benefit of giving everyone a voice.
Once done the PIR report can highlight the common themes and make recommendations for improvements. Saving Changes...
Thanks Julie, that would give it the right structure. Its coming up to a natural stage boundary, so I'll extend that review to the whole project.
As a note to anyone reading this in future, challenging the project objectives has also been immensely valuable - via a cut down PID. For me it identified a lot of the inherent risks, and also that the project team was working on the (fortunately) right outcome but was not clear why. Turns out this started as a risk avoidance project with roughly neutral finance case, not new functionality serving an emerging need. Saving Changes...
