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Start with a troubled project.
N O Y E S
Unique project?
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Fit with business strategy?
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Technologically viable?
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Right sponsor?
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Customer buy-in?
Y E S
Approved project?
Y E S
The CIO should look for signals such as missed deadlines, increased budgets and dissatisfaction in the ranks. After identifying a troubled project, the CIO should, with the help of the project manager, seek answers to questions in the following six gray boxes.
Was the project approved by an authorized person? If the person who approved the project is no longer with the organization, make sure the current sponsor is fully committed to the project.
Is this the only project of this kind underway? Is there no project that duplicates this one?
Does the project fit with the currently stated business strategy?
Is the enabling technology available and reliable? Can it be supported by the IT organization? Will users adapt it properly?
Does the sponsor understand the projects complexity? Is he or she committed to the project? Does the sponsor have the authority to shut down the project?
Vital Signs
Project Schedule: actual vs. plan % difference in days Milestones: actual vs. plan % goals completed on time Deliverables: actual vs. plan % goals achieved Unresolved Issues 1 # issues vs. deliverables to be completed Cost to Date: actual vs. estimated % over or under budget
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Variance
< 10% 10% to 20% > 20% < 10% 10% to 20% >20% < 10% 10% to 20% > 20% No Issues2 < Deliverables > Deliverables < 10% 10% to 20% > 20% < 10% 10% to 15% > 15% 1-3 Risks 4-5 Risks 6-7 Risks
Points
0 1 2 0 1 2 0 2 4 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 2 4 1 3 5
gopal k. kapur is the president and founder of the Center for Project Management in San Ramon, Calif. (www.center4pm.com).
How To Kill A Troubled Project concept 2001 Center for Project Management
Resources: actual vs. planned % difference in staff, equipment, etc. High Probability, High Impact Risk Events e.g., technology failure, loss of sponsor, key personnel
If the project to be cancelled involves vendors or contractors, the sponsor needs to review the cancellation plan with the legal department.
Because a cancelled project means reassigning team members, the sponsor ought to consult the HR department to make sure any career-related issues are addressed properly.
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Now that the vital signs are defined and the threshold levels are set, its time for an assessment. To ensure accuracy and completeness, the CIO should verify the vital signs.
The steering committee should be made up of crossfunctional executives. For major strategic projects, these should be department heads reporting to the CEO.
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If the vital sign variances are acceptable, the project can continue as planned. However, if the variances breach either threshold level, the steering committee needs to decide the fate of the project.
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The steering committee now decides the fate of the project. In one commonly used method, each steering group member casts a vote with a value of between 1 (low priority) and 5 (high priority). Usually, only projects averaging 4 or more are deemed worth saving.
The sponsor and the project manager develop a welldefined plan, with specific responsibilities, to carry out the project cancellation process. This is to ensure that damage to the end customer, the key stakeholders and the project team is minimized.
The sponsor should call or personally meet with key stakeholders to set out the reasons for the cancellation before announcing the decision publicly.
The sponsor should be available to take questions from employees and vendors as well as key stakeholders. Executives should not assign blame to individuals or teams; if they do, staff morale and willingness to honestly assess future projects will suffer.
The steering committee should evaluate the projects vital signs every two weeks, and more frequently if it breached the Caution or Danger threshold.
The sponsor and the project manager outline the steps needed to bring the projects vital signs back to acceptable levels, and devise a plan for tracking the projects recovery. The plan should include getting proper authorization, an appropriate sponsor, and buy-in from customers if these factors had not been agreed upon earlier.
The project manager should interview team members (including customers) and review the projects history, then draft a set of lessons learned to share with managers and staff.
In any project, there are always certain components such as requirements, design, code, test datathat can be salvaged for use in other projects. The project manager should develop and implement a plan to salvage any/all such components.