How
to Get Out of Project Overwhelm
by Adele Sommers, Ph.D.
It's two weeks before the deadline. But your project is
at least six weeks behind! Everyone is sweating bullets. As project
leader, you're wringing your hands. A volcano of surprises has erupted
since the project launched three months ago. And in
contrast to everyone's prognostications, no one foresaw the lava
flow of trouble ahead.
Your dilemma: Information that was supposed to be available
in Week 2 won't be known for another month. Parts of the system
that were designed to work one way are really working another. An
expert you needed to provide critical details went on extended leave
right after the project launch. And that's just scratching the surface!
So today, that simple-looking undertaking that your crystal
ball said should only take four weeks of work beckons from a distant
horizon. The funding may soon be cut off. And management will surely
panic if it's not finished for the scheduled unveiling. You sense
disaster looming, yet everyone feels helpless. So, what can
you do?
This article explains how to get out of "project overwhelm"
and restore sanity to your endeavor. It may be time to regroup and
swiftly chart a new course.
But Wait!
Couldn't You Try
a Last-Minute, Heroic Maneuver?
Well, you could, but should you? Yes,
it's only human nature to want to pull out all the stops, work 24/7,
and pray it will all come together. Is it still possible to finish
on time if you speed up your efforts, put more people on the project,
and/or require the team to work 14 hours a day? And if you do, can
you ever get completely caught up?
Let's get real. You and your team will probably need to
admit that there's no way to achieve the original goals in the expected
time frame. There are just too many loose ends. Key people and information
sources are missing, and that creates gaping holes. Further, parts
of the system aren't working correctly. How long will it take to
fix that?
A misconception about projects is that you can remedy every
late delay by adding people or increasing effort. In certain cases,
you can. In others, adding people at the eleventh hour or
working at a frenzied pace brings chaos, frustration, and
errors.
A project delivered with major gaps will seem seriously flawed
if everyone compares it to the original plan. Here's a powerful
strategy that can make all the difference...
It's Time To Reframe Success!
Reframe
success? What exactly does that mean?
Well, initially, you and your team defined a set of requirements
for completing the project. There were four types of criteria
involved (some of which may have been simply implied):
- Time (the speed or schedule for doing the work)
- Cost (in terms of the funding, the resources, or a combination)
- Quality (how well the effort needed to be done)
- Features (how many components or deliverables there were,
and how complex)
On this project, however, it seems you've run into a common situation
in which the features (and perhaps quality) have collided
with time. Too much to get done on too short a schedule.
It's really no one's fault; everyone was doing the best he or she
could. There were just too many dynamic variables in play. When
every aspect of a project is a moving target, it often feels like
skateboarding on molten rock.
So the disconnect in your situation is that you won't
be able to complete everything you started out to do per the original
schedule. The answer is not to hide behind your desk; it's to re-plan
the tail end of the project so you can smoothly carry over the
unfinished tasks to a later phase.
It's a lot like ending a meeting on time when you still have unfinished
business left on the agenda. Yes, everyone can agree to continue
talking until all topics have been discussed. Or, you could choose
to stop the meeting gracefully by deciding what to carry over
to the next agenda. In fact, the earlier you can anticipate
any potential need to do this on your project, the more your team
and organization will benefit.
Here is a simple but effective strategy for applying this
sanity-saving approach. Review all outstanding tasks and requirements,
then sort them into these categories:
1) Must-have within the remaining schedule,
because you need them very soon
2) Nice-to-have within the remaining schedule,
but they could be carried over
3) Can't do yet, even if you wanted to, as there isn't enough
information available
Review this reprioritized list with your team and with management,
making any changes needed. If you execute your plan accordingly,
you'll sleep soundly again at night!
~~~~~~~~~~~
About the Author
Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is author of Straight Talk
on Boosting Business Performance: 12 Ways to Profit from Hidden
Potential. To learn more about her book and sign up for more
free tips like these, visit her site at www.LearnShareProsper.com
This article may be distributed freely on your Web
site, as long as this entire article, including the links and full
About the Author section, are unchanged. Please send
a copy of, or link to, your reprint to Adele@LearnShareProsper.com.
Copyright 2005 Adele Sommers, The Enterprise Prosperity
Guild, All Rights Reserved.
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