Begin with an error of an inch and end by being a thousand miles off the mark!

A federal government study found that after 15% of the project duration and the project is in a ditch, there is very little if any possibility of bringing it back. You might get it in on time, but not on budget, or you might get it to budget, but not on time. The quality might be degraded, or the scope reduced. Something has to give.

To avoid having to call Project 911, do the right things in planning a project. Before you take any actions on a project, ensure that the measurable deliverables are agreed to by stakeholders and build a detailed plan, especially for the start of the project.

In the development and construction world, where I spent most of my career, things rarely went south when we were painting the walls, or moving in the furniture. Bad projects, went south during the buying of the sub-vendors or digging the hole to start. I  am sure that in bad IT projects there is an analogous southward trip.

Projects go bad at the start, and we have evidence if they are not corrected early they rarely recover.

The time to call Project 911 is early, before the 15% deadline, but put them on hold.

I always used the strategy of significantly engaging clients early in the project. They were there when things were turning and they could see for themselves where they could help. (I did have had a couple of rare occasions where the client did not want the project to succeed.)

If its early and the client can be engaged in the rescue, don’t be embarrassed to ask for their help. You  might loose the client in the future, but it sure will be a little less stressful, than having a bad project and loosing the client anyway.

On two occasions, for significant international clients, I was called by the client to help the team recover the project. I was not the designer or the builder, nor even selling consulting services at the time. The client saw the project going south and brought help to for the team, my task: set realistic deliverables and help the team begin to  meet them.  Take direction from this ancient Chinese proverb, and always spend largest effort in the front end of a project.

Begin with an error of an inch and end by being a thousand miles off the mark