by John Jan Popovic

How to Recover From Project Failures - FAST
How to get your troubled project back on track fast? Most software companies end up with a troubled or failing project at some point.
There are number of reasons for project failure:
- ill-defined, too vague or inappropriate requirements
- poor project planning and management,
- blocking issues related to bad working conditions
- blocking issues related to non fully operational IT infrastructure
- uncontrolled quality problems,
- inaccurate development timing estimates
- and inaccurate budget estimates
- no test cases

We have a skill set which can help you address and correct these issues in order to recover your troubled project, and put it back on track.

Not only do we pinpoint the major issues that are sabotaging project success, we will provide expert, unbiased insights based on years of project recovery experience.

We've helped many clients navigate project recovery. Here are just some of the ways we can help you, too.
* Determine if the stated project deadline is achievable
* Identify the approach necessary to bring a troubled project under control
* Evaluate the quality of a product
* Help improve the scalability and performance of a system
* Implement requirements, estimation, or project management practices that will help you avoid future project failures
* Address critical and most difficult functionality issues at the beginning
* From the essential simplicity to additional incremental complexity
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How to Recover From Project Failures

Did you ever cry for your project failures? How did you arrive to this desperate position? What had gone wrong, and why? And more importantly, what could you do to put things back on right track?

We've all been in such desperate position before. That project development that you began with such optimism has become troubled, ill and hard to manoeuvre.
First it was just a small things. A few discussions with thoughtful but cordial disagreement with your client or with your colleagues. Than some unexpected bugs, wrong development estimates! Road map schedule reassessments.
Drama, Disaster and Tragedy!

WAIT! We have the good news! This situation is salvageable. And here's how.

Step 0: REVIEW and PROJECT TRACKING - what's the current situation.
Ideally, the development tracking should all have been done at the beginning of the project, but if it didn't happen then make sure it is done now. If the plan you started out with isn't working, adjust it and make it more realistic. Sometimes one review cycle would be sufficient. But often it happens that you need a review cycle at several levels and project aspects, so in the new plan, be sure that you can monitor all project aspects and control the development progress, the bug tracking and other testing issues. Develop the check-up list and see what is missing, or what needs to be improved.

Step 1: SYMPTOMS DIAGNOSTICS - Identifying the problem - what's really going wrong.

Once things start to slip, the practical, interpersonal, and creative issues get so entangled that unravelling them can feel next to impossible.
As stated earlier, identifying the causes that lead the project failure is critically important to complete the recovery plan. The original project documents have to be studied once again to ascertain if there were any wrong assumptions. This should be followed by re-examining all the steps subsequently taken for implementing the project to determine which wrong step triggered the project failure. There may also be certain extraneous factors that might have affected the progress of the project like government policies, change in tax structure and sudden escalation of costs, market influence and other similar unforeseen developments.

Work Not Moving Fast Enough
In design projects, it can take a WHILE to get from understanding the problem to figuring out what you're going to do about it. If people on the team are unfamiliar with how this design process works, it's natural for them to get anxious and worried. This can be compounded if you're also dealing with the issue above: they don't quite know what you're doing and they don't yet trust that you're in charge of things on your end. Often, simply showing your work to date or even before will quell concerns.

Seamless development / Continuity in Deliverables
Much as project sponsors and team members are excited about the prospect of a new design, they may not have a clear picture of the project outcome. Even, the picture in their heads may be quite different from the one in yours. In that situation, it's natural to focus on the deliverables as the outcome, and measure the progress of the project by the progress of deliverables.
You'll be doing your client and yourself a big favour if you can demonstrate continuity in thinking in the evolution of each deliverable and in the seamless transition from one milestone to the other.

Before starting a project it is important to consider different aspects of human resources management like:
- Communication Breakdown
- Unrealistic expectations
- Undelivered promises
- Delays
- Wrong approach to solution
- Unrealistic optimism
The quality of the work and competent and skilled workforce is the top problem. Continuous product testing and avoiding of bug introduction in the system is the issue of out-most priority.

During development planning, it is important to write the name of each major phase, milestone, or part of a system to be developed. Now it is important to identify the MISSION CRITICAL issues, where something is problematic, incomplete, or not fully described. Then, for each one critical issue write down one idea for a possible solution.
Expert Help - If you can't envision the problem for whatever reason, ask the expert.


Step 2: THERAPY Take actions to correct the problem.
Once you have identified what's wrong, it is much easier to do something to fix it.
How to Recover?

There are no standard recepies that can be readily applied to save a project. Each project is different and any recovery plan has to be different. The project recovery plan has to be worked out concerning: the budgetary limits, time constraints, human resources, the management tools needed and availability of professional expertise. It is also important to know if the additional funds are available, and whether the customers, sponsors or higher management will be forthcoming.

Some recovery plans may also include re-negotiating terms with the customers and solution suppliers, reconstituting the project team and finding fresh experts and talents. A new plan of action has to be created, taking care that earlier mistakes do not recur and there are no cost or time overruns a second time. At times, it is preferable to conceive a couple of ALTERNATIVE recovery plans and present them to the customer or the company's think tank to exercise the right approach.

To get the project back on track, it could be important to organise a Project Realignment Meeting. It is important to be constructive and forward looking in assessing where we stand, and figuring out how we're going to move the work forward with transparency and determination. Those are the things that will bring awareness and control over the beast. So we can assure trust, speed, project continuity and good team communication.

Here's described how to run a Project Realignment Session:
1. In the roadmap walk through each of the milestone deliverables from beginning to end.
2. For each item on the roadmap, add a remark for every open or vague issue, unanswered question, or major thing still to be figured out.
3. Revisit the project schedule. Knowing what you know now about the number of remaining issues and the work still be done, have an honest conversation about whether it needs to be adjusted. Don't be afraid to blow your project plan if that's what it takes.
4. Lastly, agree on the form that reviews and hand-offs will take going forward. Agree on how many review cycles a deliverable will have before it's finished, and on a protocol for capturing and resolving feedback.
A Project Realignment may sound like a big effort, but it works, and can help the whole team understand the total state of our work to date, and identify the critical issues, where we needed to re-focus our efforts to move the work forward. Visualize the work still to be done and put specific estimates around it.


Step 3: Learn from the other people's mistakes.

It is important to recognize this as a learning opportunity. Start observing other people who you consider as good experts, and write down what they did that worked well, as well try identify their mistakes and errors.
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Is recovery possible?

After diagnosing the exact causes of the project failure, the next obvious step is to realistically assess whether project recovery is possible and if so, what cost, time and expert skills are required. It has to be kept in mind that all projects are not capable of recovery and at times the recovery cost will be too high and it will be more prudent to accept failure and kill the project. Some projects may call for only certain readjustments whereas others may demand a total overhaul. It is not beneficial to indulge in blame game and point accusing finger against any person.


But if a project recovery is not feasible, it is prudent to accept failure and abandon the project than waste time and incur further unnecessary losses.