Hi guys, I'm given charge of the tail end of a Project[earlier PM left],there is no time to digest info which is not readily available,resources are dwindling,timeline is biting.
Any good opinions to deal with it with a quickfix. Saving Changes...
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Anonymous
Hopefully the project charter, project plan and issues/risk list are available to you. From the plan and charter you should be able to quickly determine where you are at in relation to deliverables/milestones and the project objectives as outlined in the project charter. The issues/risk will give you some history and some guidance for moving forward, i.e. what needs attention now.
Of course my opinion can only be leveraged depending on the level of detail that is included in the plan and charter.
If there is enough detail to make an assessment , data points to consider looking into are % work completed, remaining duration, % of budget burned, % of budget remaining etc. You can then focus your attention on the challenging area’s. Plus, if you need to re-calibrate expectations (dates etc.) you will have statistics to ground your decisions on.
If detail is lacking from the plan and charter (or other artifacts that your environment requires), a method that I have found to be useful is a facilitated “get the project back on track” session with the project team.
Find out from the team members where they are at with deliverables, what’s missing, what constraints they are facing, what are the issues and risks etc. From the teams input build out a plan or a simpe task list that depicts where you are at and where you need to go to get the project completed.
One question....how is the project sponsor taking the situation? .
My opinions could possibly change dependant upon type of project (IT, construction, infrastructure etc) and where you are at in the cycle, (development, QA testing, UAT etc.)
Good luck. I’ll check back on the post.
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Ramakrishna CH PMPDelivery Manager| Value MomentumHackensack, Nj, United States
I agree with the point in Anonymous post. How ever you can do, (be it from existing artifacts, Project Team, Sponsorer, Higher Management) take stock of the situation vis-a-vis what is palnned, what is achieved and what is remaining. If needed go back to client to verify the details and come up with a plan / revisied milestones, dates and numbers to move forward.. Good Luck !! Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Excellent advice from anonymous. I agree with the approach. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Thank you all for the comments. You will find this situation unique same as I do.
Well as for the project charter,Plan and issues I was handed a CDR according to which things are moving so far.
There is another team [Team A] who have finished off their part and our team was supposed to align with this team[Team B]
for delivery.
But there is not much co-operation from them , which when escalated falls on deaf ears.
Since there have been some friction/issues in this project earlier and seems like many heads have rolled.
The time I joined, there was no proper handover plan.[Topics list to be transferred ,Knowledge transfer,sign etc].
In the beginning,the first meeting was,get the "team together" and get to know the issues/concerns/deliverables,
but off late this Resource [team members] have been vanishing or dwindling fast,request for team-building has been turned down.
There is a Huge amount of Mistrust between all and request to "Send mail" in case of any 'task to be done/request' is simply not heeded.
The Main person seems to know everything what exactly needs to be done but so far I haven't been able to gather enough information,since each time I approached ,he/she hits on a new list of "What has been done till now show me NOW" kind'f talk and it does not go any further from there.
So I keep wondering if he/she knows it or is playing it.
Due to the issues in past there is a jittery feeling in all,as seems from the behaviour of most of them.
Then is the case of sharing information regarding Infrastructure,when I put up the question there is a look of disbelief on the persons face ?
"What ? you are asking NOW ? Go and ask XYZ about it or ABC ?
And all the while we were thinking that you have been managing it and know it already ?"
To top it all there was a question from the main person which is an extremely weird statement at such point.
I was asked to suggest an alternate technology which could be implemented ,which when I did suggest.
The statement was "If this technology fails,will you resign".
What a classic way of instilling mistrust.
Still I managed to deliver few deliverables,but meanwhile I'm in a fix as to what happens next if there are more
depletion of resources and find myself fighting a loosing battle or thinking that it is me who is too critical or what?.
But, I'm determined to make it work.
Hence your opinion needed.
Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
if you really believe you are are sailing in a sinking ship- my advice will be to get out of it. Otherwise, if you really believe that you can pull it through- go ahead and do it- the result being eventual success. Make any sense? Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Good Morning ,
Ok, re-adjusted the Project Flow and pulled out the risk template at this stage and kept on the table,and now working according to it.
Gather Trust
Set clear communication lines
Get back on track
within the time-line is the 3 point plan.
About eventual success,yeah,a ton of it since now I have a good experience of getting things fixed.
Another feather in my cap :).
Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Sounds like this is the best time to rebaseline the project. The last thing you want to do is push forward on a project without adequate understanding of the situation. Saving Changes...
