A Crisis Project

Thanks Sergio , there was lots of politics and behavioural issues, which led to drastic situation like I described, it is a real life example.

I started this topic, guessing for how many of us go through such kind of valiant efforts, of pulling a project out of CRISIS, and saw the light in the end.

There is no exaggeration I the statement what I had made in defining the situation, rather I had kind of underplayed it.

You don't pick up such projects by your choice, rather you are the chosen one, picked up by the senior management and are expected to perform to the core.

Leadership style of situational leadership is at play.
The case in discussion here was in some 4-5 years back where the project caught among disparate stakeholder groups, and no one wanted to engage the implementer (which were us) to any sort of firefighting and there was no compassion for us.

The first challenge was to stop the work, withdraw the team and short close the project if the payments are not made.

Succeeded, struck up payment of about $200k was released . The skill used: Behavioural. And it was, Empathise with the executive management, spent time ( infact stretched working of roughly 12-14 hours a day), having put work around in place, the client gave space for a truce, and thus a way forward ensured.

Second challenge was to re-assemble project team , and here also empathy was at play , the team members which were not ready to see each other started putting their efforts together.

Put in more experts from offshore to onsite, enhanced headcount in service delivery, and taken on tally of issues.

Importantly, charted out new plan, updated the progress twice in a week, shown the progress and aligned the random issue's resolution with business needs, enhanced frequency of business transactions by handholding the users.

Proactively engaged with the Business Process Owners in 3 different countries and ensured the loopholes in critical business processes were covered, solutions documented, key users retrained.

I would like to mention that, technical skill is the taken for granted from you and there is no substitute, but behavioural skills, which are attained by experience is more important in handling CRISIS situation.

You don't expect all stars in the exit from such kind of accomplishments, but they leave you important lessons with you.
As a reward you earn reslationships to last a lifetime.

Having been the "babysitter", I agree with you Chandra. Although I am confused by your last statement "... deliver Project without penalties".

In all of the rescue initiatives I have managed, "penalties" (time, money, resource, quality) were already happening, hence the need for my services. The "trick", as I mentioned above, is to stop future significant penalties from occurring as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the mention Liana.

You reminded me of one key point that bears mentioning which is the most difficult: "... you can quickly pull out of the death spiral." Sometimes pulling out of the death spiral is not possible or desirable. Sometimes "euthanasia" is the best option.

Where projects were ill-conceived from the start, with unacheivable or questionable objectives or no intention of proper funding or staffing, the best course of action for management is to kill it. But it is never as straightforward as that, especially where what I call the "tyranny of sunk costs" is in play.

Thanks for the kind words Satish.

You are spot-on with your comments about the difficulty of halting a project mid-flight. And it is not always an option that is easily 'sold'.

That said, much serious damage can happen if the political will is to continue doing the wrong thing while attempting to fix it, because the perception is that progress is being made, when perhaps the opposite is true.

If you haven't already, check out my free diagnostic to tell if an initiative is headed for trouble:
http://cpr1.exertusinc.com?code=PMcom

I'm curious to know how well the tool would have worked with the scenario you described.

Liquidated Damages/Penalties are applicable on intermediate as well as on completion milestones.Impact of such penalties,especially, on a crises project is unavoidable even to the most experienced and qualified Project manager .