I caught an excellent presentation by J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP at my local PMI Chapter (
PMIWDC). Mr. Ward is the Executive Vice President of ESI International. He provided a humorous and excellent presentation that used the contrast of successful and unsuccessful managers to impress his points and make the presentation very interesting. He was a very good model to follow for making a high impact presentation that takes control over the audience and have them hanging on every word.
Bio:
http://www.esi-intl.com/public/webseminar/lwardbio.asp
Mr. Ward described that “projects gets six months late one day at a time” and provided the necessary first steps toward recovering troubled projects. He described that crisis commonly occurs toward the last third of the project based on seeds sown day by day.
Mr. Ward defines a project as “troubled” when variance trends have exceeded acceptable levels of tolerance and the project is heading for failure. To recover a troubled project, it is the role of the project manager to quickly save the project from loss and restore usefulness avoiding total failure. Troubled Projects have common symptom such as heroics, poor morale, consistent late delivery, a sense that no one knows when the project will end.
He describes the recovery environment as analogous to the shock trauma center model in the medical community. These environments have clear role definition where every member knows their role and the role of others. They use a rotating leadership structure where they are both followers and leaders as their specialty arises.
Recovery Steps
1.
Focus on the right issue – How do we help the customer win? How do we deliver value? Avoid delusional thinking – It is not about on-time delivery anymore. It ain’t gonna happen. It is about providing the customer the value of the fully tested and functional product.
2.
Regain Control is Number 1 Priority – Use inchstones vs. milestones. Use a temporary period of micromanagement. Clearly define roles and delegate. Seek evidence or proof of task completion.
3.
Do it quickly!
Assessment Phase Framework
Define Charter
Develop Assessment Plan
Conduct Assessment
Recovery Phase Framework
Develop Recovery Plan (Must not fail)
Conduct Recovery
He concluded it with a highly graphical reference to Michael, a character from the movie Halloween to convey the importance of not celebrating too quickly after recovering a project.
The message: After you stab the psycho axe murderer 6-10 times, shoot it with 6 bullets and force it to fall over a balcony, make sure you can find the body before you claim victory, otherwise he is bound to star in a number of sequels.
Saul Rosenberg PMP
created this social network on Ning. 
