Project Failure : LouisvillePM
Seems like the term "Project Failure" is floating around the Project Management blogosphere these days: Exhibit A and Exhibit B. Or I could just be sensitive to the topic as I have a project that needs to be delivered by a third party vendor this week to meet our "Go Live" Milestone Date. Note to self: The whole world isn't out to get me... ;)
As a PM, my warm fuzzy meter has been all over the place during the course of this project. Most recently, I felt that I was in the Fuzzy Comfort Zone last week when our installation instructions were delivered on time, but then hit Rock Bottom when our website wasn't delivered on our previously agreed upon date/time just two days later. That led to some over the weekend testing and me drilling into Rock Bottom's upper crust of despair with a defect list that was entirely too long considering the site's overall size. One showstopper defect, in particular, had me afraid that the entire site would be unacceptable at go time...
However, after forwarding the defect list to the vendor this morning and having a quick huddle around my write-ups later in the day, I have been assured that the defects either have been fixed or can be fixed and delivered back to me by noon tomorrow. So its all sunshine and snow cones from here on out, right?
Wrong. Despite the fact that I really want to beleive that these guys will deliver when they say they will (even though they haven't made a habit out of it, yet) I came up with a contingency plan around our expectations not being met in our timeframe, and talked it over with my boss today to ensure that he was aware of the situation. He agreed with my way ahead and told me to keep him updated on the situation.
When I came into Corporate America as a project manager, I learned quickly that planning in the face of adversity matters most to most stakeholders. So instead of planning to fail (because you failed to plan) assess the situation, brainstorm some workarounds, get buy-in from the boss and document/communicate the contingency plan to the team.
We'll see how this one works out... but I know what I'm doing either way.
As a PM, my warm fuzzy meter has been all over the place during the course of this project. Most recently, I felt that I was in the Fuzzy Comfort Zone last week when our installation instructions were delivered on time, but then hit Rock Bottom when our website wasn't delivered on our previously agreed upon date/time just two days later. That led to some over the weekend testing and me drilling into Rock Bottom's upper crust of despair with a defect list that was entirely too long considering the site's overall size. One showstopper defect, in particular, had me afraid that the entire site would be unacceptable at go time...
However, after forwarding the defect list to the vendor this morning and having a quick huddle around my write-ups later in the day, I have been assured that the defects either have been fixed or can be fixed and delivered back to me by noon tomorrow. So its all sunshine and snow cones from here on out, right?
Wrong. Despite the fact that I really want to beleive that these guys will deliver when they say they will (even though they haven't made a habit out of it, yet) I came up with a contingency plan around our expectations not being met in our timeframe, and talked it over with my boss today to ensure that he was aware of the situation. He agreed with my way ahead and told me to keep him updated on the situation.
When I came into Corporate America as a project manager, I learned quickly that planning in the face of adversity matters most to most stakeholders. So instead of planning to fail (because you failed to plan) assess the situation, brainstorm some workarounds, get buy-in from the boss and document/communicate the contingency plan to the team.
We'll see how this one works out... but I know what I'm doing either way.
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