It is a fairly common situation; expectations are not being met, the team is working extended hours but not recovering the situation, time-frames are slipping. What’s wrong?
Quite likely there several simultaneous issues, which are self re-enforcing, making recovery difficult.
During my career, I have been fortunate enough to work with many large corporations and deliver value with excellent teams. Those organisations are under constant change and a few times, after a successful piece of work, I have been asked to look at other programmes or projects that were in difficulty.
I love solving problems.
Typically, within a couple of weeks it is possible to review and understand why a project has got into difficulties. Often the roadmap to remediation can be crafted soon after and the journey to “green” can begin.
The Review – what’s going on?
It is essential to get feedback from as many people involved in the project as possible:
· What is their understanding of the project?
· How do they know what they know?
· What do they do and how etc.
A number of interview sessions employing Who, What, Where, When, How and Why coupled with a review of any artifacts – documents, pictures, videos etc – should provide good insight into the current state of the project.
Root Causes – Not following Simple Rules
Whilst every situation is full of complexity, manifesting into a staggering array of problems, there some simple rules that, if not followed, can be found to be at the root of nearly all project failures.
Know what you are doing, how and why - this may seem obvious but is often incomplete or missing, leading to confusion, and heading off in the wrong direction.
Ensure the senior team will support the change - it is essential that EVERYONE that will provide decisions and resource is onboard. Install good leadership – from the team leads, PM, Steerco and into the programme board – the most frequent root cause I have encountered is poor leadership at one of these levels and the inability to detect and correct it.
Use the best tools for the job, from delivery methodology to technical solutions – almost as common as a leadership issue. If I ride my bicycle on my lawn it will eventually stunt the growth of my grass; this does not make it good choice for garden maintenance if I have a mower in the shed!
The Road to Recovery
Understanding the root causes automatically points the path to green. Perhaps it is as simple as agreeing what success looks like, prioritising and replanning, ensuring the most value is delivered first. In some cases, it can be far more complicated.
The two most common causes can be the hardest to change. Sometimes a challenging sponsor or project manager can be replaced or adjustments in the way of working can ease a challenge. It may be that changing the delivery methodology is too politically difficult to effect, within a reasonable time frame, and workarounds will need to be put in place.
I have had several clients who have run into difficulty on their “Agile” projects. Agile is great when it can be implemented effectively but trying to use it in an incompatible scenario can be far less effective than mowing the grass with a pushbike. Agile is a mindset and everyone needs to share that mindset for it to be effective. A traditional “waterfall” approach can be heavy on governance and artifacts with slower lead times to deliver value but there are still a few situations when it is appropriate. Often some form of hybrid approach works well – especially if an Agile, decentralised decision-making environment is not fully embedded.
A key component to any recovery is honest and open communication. A fact-based approach to understanding the challenge isn’t, for various reasons, always followed by the optimal route to recovery but without that foundation no route to recovery is likely.
Is your project in trouble? Get in touch with Mark to discuss how we can aid its recovery.