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Look for Project Warning Signs!

August 24, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Risk Management

Look for Project Warning Signs!
By John Filicetti

Always look for signs that the project may be in trouble. These could include:

  • A small variance in schedule, or a budget that starts to get bigger, especially early in the project. There is a tendency to think you can make it up, but this is a warning. If the tendencies are not corrected quickly, the impact will be unrecoverable.
  • You discover that activities you think have already been completed are still being worked on. Users whom you think have been migrated have not.
  • You need to rely on unscheduled overtime to hit the deadlines, especially early in the project.
  • Team morale starts to decline.
  • Deliverable quality or service quality starts to deteriorate. For instance, users start to complain that their converted e-mail folders are not working correctly if your project entails implementing an e-mail solution for the company.
  • Quality control steps, testing activities, and project management time starts to be cut back from the original schedule. Don’t cut back on the activities that ensure the work is done correctly.

If these situations occur, raise visibility through risk management, and put together a plan to proactively ensure that the project stays on track. If you cannot successfully manage through the problems, ask for help from your project sponsor. Be sure to log the issue and include it in the monthly status report to ensure all stakeholders stay informed of potential problems.

John F. Filicetti, PMP, MBA
John Filicetti is a Sr. Sales Engineer/PM-PMO-PPM Consultant with a great depth of experience and expertise in enterprise project management, project management methodologies, Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Project Management Offices (PMOs), Governance, process consulting, and business management. John has directed and managed project management teams, created and implemented methodologies and practices, provided project management consulting, created and directed PMOs, and created consulting and professional services in such areas as project portfolio management, Governance, business process re-engineering, network systems integration, application development, infrastructure, and complex environments. John has enjoyed many years as PMO Director for large corporations in the Seattle area and leads the PMO Roundtable discussion group and forum.

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