i was assigned to manage a huge ongoing project that has many sub projects ,some of them was delivered ,others ongoing and some did not start yet .
no management plans for any project was developed only approved requirement document and stakeholder register that i have now .
The project deadline is in 2 months and i cannot stop any process to be able to develop any management plan so i have to work to find a way even in weekends , so how can i begin and from where should i start ! Saving Changes...
I've been in a similar situation, although without the short deadline. I started by comparing defined/desired scope and deliverables with what was being worked on. It (usually) doesn't matter if you deliver on time, if you deliver the wrong thing.
In your case, once you know the right work is being done, I would verify whether or not the work is going to be done on time. Also, you have work that has not started, yet, and a two month deadline - can that work be done in less than two months? Are the right people available to do the work?
Going back to an earlier statement I made, I have a question. Which is more important to your sponsor - delivering the right thing, or delivering something on time? If all I knew about your project is what you described, I would believe that there was a high risk that you would not finish on time.
You need to find out whether or not you will deliver on time right away. If the project will be late, talk to your sponsor. Find out what the priorities are. If it's possible to deliver the sponsor's priorities on time, make sure you do that and that the sponsor knows when you can deliver the rest. Don't put this off; your sponsor will be much more understanding if you present the situation with solutions now, instead of just presenting the problem a week before you are supposed to deliver. Saving Changes...
Krishna PakkiProject Services Manager| Rio TintoGilbert, Az, United States
with two months to go on the Project, i would check for the scope and list of deliverable to be produced in next two months, review the schedule (in comparison to baseline), look at the constraints, issue log or risk register, and have a forecast plan in place for next two months. That should be your revised baseline and should get buy-in from Team and approved by sponsor.
All Plans are important, same time, remember a plan document not necessarily mean a lengthy document.
Before anything, identify key stakeholders and get their inputs on all the above. When we were managing a study to be delivered in 10 weeks time, we use to have 20min catch-up with all the contributors, identify interdependent deliverable milestones and monitor them. The daily meeting topic included Celebrate Success to keep teams motivated.
Wish you good luck ! Saving Changes...
Darren McCreaDirector, Enterprise Information Services| Central Oregon Community CollegeBend, Or, United States
Good advice from both Aaron and Krishna. Having been in similar situations, I know that this can be a bit overwhelming. My advice would be to break this project down into smaller, more manageable parts - especially if the overall project is comprised of smaller sub-projects.
Once you have broken the project down, meet with your project teams and take the temperature (progress) of each sub-project, prioritize them and then focus your attention on those areas that are behind schedule, over budget or lacking direction.
At some point, it is going to help for you to take the requirements you have, define the scope of the project, create a list of deliverables and get those approved/agreed to in writing from the project sponsor, put an activity list together with estimated durations, sequence the activities and then create a work breakdown structure and schedule. Ask your project teams to assist with/review your activity list, once you have your deliverables defined. Make sure you have resources planned for and assigned and keep up communications with your sponsor, project teams and stakeholders. Not sure how big your project is, or event if it's internal or external to your organization, but two months is not a lot of time to try and clean up after someone else. Good luck! Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Run as fast as you can....(hehehehe. Sorry, bad joke). As others, I was in the same situation more than one time. Including I faced this situation 3 month ago. Comments above are super. Trying to add something I will say: forget about to follow any formal process stated into any BOK you know. But do not forget to follow some guideline. The first thing to understand is that people will determine the success or failure of your project. So, first of all, identify and understand the needs for all needed stakeholders (perhaps it helps you as a guide: https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-pos...-stakeholders). And about needs it is critical to understand what they expect as other mentioned above (mainly the sponsor). Second, determine what project success means for the key stakeholders. That is critical: no matter you will do if you do not achieve that then everything will be consider unsuccessful. Take care about the project success must be aligned with scope, time, cost and quality because those are the only things you can manage as project manager. Third, as other mentioned, try to understand the project scope and then try to make simple calculations about activities duration to achieve the scope. With that on hand go to a project requirements prioritization section to stay clear about what you can do in the imposed time. Four, plan base on milestones. And manage the project based on achieve those milestones. AND REMEMBER: you are not the owner of the project. The project is owned by the organization and mainly for the same people that are pushing you. As we said in Argentina: thanks the Pope is argentine I talked with God about project management. We get in agreement. As God, he will not perform as project manager. As project manager, I will not make miracles. Saving Changes...
Deepa KalangiManager, Program Management, Author, Trainer| CVS HealthCharlotte, NC, United States
2 Months is extremely short. I would go with these steps to minimize the risk to the schedule considering a large project.
1. On all Sub projects- status of scope left undone, time to complete, on track or not?
2. Put that in a high level Excel sheet first before you do on a MS project plan.
3. Now create a broader picture- overall project- what is left in terms of scope? current status, what is the estimated time to complete and on track? If not, add risks/issues, escalate immediately.
4. Put 1 and 3 in MS project, overarching is at summary level and sub projects are like mini schedules in their respective phases. Put Milestones and dependencies on the top of the plan so you have high visibility and are able to track quickly and efficiently.
Sometimes, excel helps a lot get the broader vision than MS Project, so first do that so you have clarity on the current status. Good luck!! Saving Changes...
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