With these odds vying against project managers it is becoming more and more necessary that rather than cancel a project to look at a way that the project can be turned around and show some form of economic viability for the project and the company as a whole. With this change in paradigm it will require some quick thinking both within the process of how the project is being managed and getting the buy in from both your project team and the stakeholders

1. TURNING YOUR
PROJECT AROUND
A RECOVERY APPROACH

2. OVERVIEW
The rate of project failure in today’s economy is becoming what one considers to the norm
for the rollout of projects in today’s business environment.
Poor Requirements Definition 50%
Poor Scope Definition 15%
Inadequate Risk Management 17%
Communication Problems 14%
Lack of Qualified Resources 3%
Other 1%
ESI International Survey - 2000

3. With these odds vying against project managers it is
becoming more and more necessary that rather than
cancel a project to look at a way that the project can be
turned around and show some form of economic viability
for the project and the company as a whole.
With this change in paradigm it will require some quick
thinking both within the process of how the project is
being managed and getting the buy in from both your
project team and the stakeholders.
OVERVIEW

4. ADVANTAGES
Turning your project around will allow:
 The firming of the money spent to date
 Projecting earned value and propose a positive
balance in the future .
 That with a change in the approach and some re-
planning you will deliver the project and more
importantly you will deliver the project with the
stakeholder’s blessing and approval.
 That your product will be launched and you will
still keep your foothold in the marketplace

5. KEEP IN MIND
 The important thing is not to overcomplicate or overthink what
you need to do swift and focussed action is what is required
now both for the project and the business as a whole.
 Remember that for each area in your project that is showing a
problem a resolution can be found.
 At the end of the day every problem has the chance of being
turnaround without cancelling the whole show.

6. PREPARATION
 Select the recovery team
 Book out the day in their calendars
 Prepare the meeting room
 Send out the recovery approach
 Assign roles and responsibilities for the recovery plan
 Notify the stakeholders and finalise recovery communication
plan
 Assign admin support for the day
 Prepare the costing analysis for the day
 Obtain approval for the cost either via a change control or a
project exception
 Setup a central document storage unit for the recovery
documentation and information
 Agree to the folder structure
 Provide shared access for the information

7. Project
Manager
Business
Owner
Technical
Business
Analyst
Design Team
External
Suppliers
Production
Manager
Operations
THE RECOVERY TEAM
Please note
The recovery team will be set up in accordance of the full
responsibility required to roll out the project and this could be
the time where new resources are added to get a fresh view
on the way forward. This could result in additional costs for
the project and will need to be approved by the relevant
stakeholders

8. THE RECOVERY PLAN
The Project Baseline
Assessment
The Recovery Project Plan
Assessing the Risk
Presenting to the
Stakeholders
Go / No Go Decision

9. Obtain this information from
the original project
documentation
Time – Schedule
Cost – Financial and budget
analysis
Scope – Requirements
documentation and business
case
Against each area of the triple
constraints determine the
actual slippage to date on
time, scope and cost.
Remember this is only based
on actual work days for the
project
Determine the slippage for
each tasks and then roll it up
to Level 1 milestones to get
the full slippage picture
• Actual start date
• Current finish date
• Slippage
You will need to do a projected
view of what is required to roll
out the project to deliver the
completed product.
1. Actual + Slippage = Work
to date
2. Current completed work
plus delta to complete –
final target against cost
and time to get final target
numbers
THE PROJECT BASELINE – ASSESSMENT
Original Plan
Current completed
activity/tasks
Slippage Delta to complete
The assessment will provide an overall picture of the current status of the project, what milestones have
been achieved and what has yet to be accomplished. The recovery assessment must clearly show the
actual slippage to date and the full cost impact of the slippage and risk to the company. Finally you will
need to provide a snapshot of what is still needed to complete the full project and the benefits of this.

10. THE RECOVERY PROJECT PLAN
Scope
CostTime
Redefine the project baseline setting up
• A revised scope document (this could
be either a requirement document or a
new business case
• Outline the revised project mandate
• Against each revised activity accurately
define the actual time to complete the
task and this must be 100% accurate
• Outline the agreed cost against each
activity. Remember to include any
supplier cost as well
It is important to ensure that the correct
project team and skills are now in place
to take the project through to the finish
line.
Ensure that each and every activity to
complete the task has the correct
resource or team member assigned and
draw up the roles and responsibility
What could be done here is for each team
member and supplier to sign a project
charter to ensure buy in and commitment
to complete the recovered project plan
The final step in the recovery plan will be
to assess the viability of proceeding with
the recovery
• Return on Investment
• Measuring the quality
• Handover of the product whether this
in an on-line product or a product
being sold to the public
• Projected value and how this will
improve the companies market
foothold and competitive standing
Project Baseline Resources Viability

11. ASSESSING THE RISK
One of the key factors to ensure that you have all
of the information on hand for understanding
whether a project recovery is viable or not is to
conduct a risk assessment based on two key
factors
• To proceed with the recovery
• Not to proceed with the recovery
Medium Level
Risk
High Level Risk
Low Level Risk
Medium Level
Risk
Probability
Impact
Low
Low
High
High
Once the full risk assessment is done you
will need to draw up the findings showing
the result of both recovery routes to
provide data on 9what provides the less
risk for recovery

12. PRESENTING TO THE STAKEHOLDERS
• Current status of project
• Reasons why to continue
• Reasons why not to continue
• Savings to company if project is cancelled
• Cost to company if recovery plan is approved
• Revised timeline to complete
• Revised charter and mandate
• Agreed actions and decisions
Once you have all of the information at hand and you are able to
provide a full view of what will be required to go ahead or to not go
ahead with the project you will need to present the findings to the
stakeholders and shareholders.
Recommended

13. THE GO OR NO GO DECISION
Go Decision
• Setup new mandate and project charter
• Baseline the project plan and ensure full
approval has been obtained
• Assign the project team and finalise the
roles and responsibilities
• Setup the recovered project budget
• Ensure the revised SOW has been
obtained from the appointed suppliers
• Finalise the recovered project plan with
the new time, cost and scope baselines
• Agree on quality plan
• Setup agreed documentation folders in
shared drive
• Hold kick off meeting
No Go Decision
• Proceed with your established project
close out process
• Notify the suppliers that the project has
been cancelled and proceed to contract
review and close out and finalise
financials
• Send out release notifications to the
project team and ensure that the correct
termination letters are sent to
contractors where relevant
• Notify PMO or relevant body that the
project is terminated
• Provide final status report on project
• Begin to store all documentation on
shared drive
• Conduct a lessons learnt with the full
team and stakeholders
Once the decision has been obtained on a Go or No Go Decision remember to setup
enough time to plan either option and ensure that the costs for each process has been
approved in writing

14. The great thing about recovering a project is that all of your
hard work will pay dividends. Clear and absolute focus on the
end goals will ensure that you move forward with your team
and stakeholders to deliver successfully.
Projects will always have challenges and to be able to turn a
project around and move it forward to deliver the vision and
the mission is what makes project management the best place
to be .
A final
word
Contact Information
Email cliona.ohanrahan@yahoo.com
Mobile +44 (0) 77 843 02708
LinkedIn Profile LinkedIn Profile
Skype clionaoh
Cliona O’Hanrahan
MPM; Prince2 ; PMI Professional