Marjorie AndersonDirector of Community| Product SchoolNewtown Square, Pa, United States
I'm sure there are times (hopefully not many) where you have found yourself on a failing project. However, have you ever encountered a failing project that bounced back? Adversely, have you ever been on a failing project where no one wanted to walk away? What were the results and how could it have been handled differently? Saving Changes...
Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
Quite often! But then I gave worked in "project rescue" roles, so i guess you'd expect that if I were doing the job well!
Very few projects are an unmitigated failure with no hope of recovery - in almost all cases there was at least some sense in the decision to do the project in the first place, and if you can wind back to the core good reason, divest the project of all the baggage and poor decisions that have let it go off the rails, then there is generally something good that can be achieved.
Of course I do say "very few", not "all" - there are occasional projects, generally kicked off by a senior exec without any proper project control, just based on an unscrutinised idea, that never had a chance, and need to be killed, as soon as possible.
I would say more than half the failing projects do have people who don't want to walk away - some for the reasons above, that they can see there's still something of value even if they can't quite put their finger on it, and some because there is a reluctance when you've invested time and energy, to write this off, and this is especially strong where a team has been welded together by the stresses of a failing project - that experience can be very uplifting even when the project itself is dire, and its hard to walk away form that sort of camaraderie.
I'd go so far as to say if I were picking a team for a tough project, give me one that has been forged in the fire of a major disaster rather than one that has only known easy success! Of course you don't want those who actually caused disaster, but those who have struggled through, learnt the hard lessons, and kept the faith to extreme lengths - there's something very valuable there, for the PM with the right skills to harness and direct! Saving Changes...
