How to Take Control of Out of Control Projects

It you woke up today and the first thought you had was, “Crap, we’re so far behind on this BAS project. How will we ever catch up?”

First off, don’t panic. You’re not the only one going through this.

Follow these three steps to start wrangling in an out-of-control project.

Step One: Figure out why the project is out of control

This one seems easy. Let’s throw more people at the problem. Hold that thought because often, not having enough manpower may not be the reason. What if you had 20 people who were completely inept? Would that solve the issue?

Get to the core problem. But how do you identify the core problem?

A trick I've developed is to simply ask myself, "What needs to be true for this problem to not exist?"

If I am getting callbacks to a project, what would need to be true for me not to get callbacks? Does the customer not know how to use the system? Did we skimp on point-to-point checkout? What single thing, if changed, would have a significant impact on us not getting callbacks?

Now I'll be real with you, oftentimes it's not that simple and it's a cascade of errors.

The mechanical didn't order a BACnet interface card and you also didn't catch it in the specifications. So, right now there is no way to interface with the RTU.

How can we fix this?

Step Two: Identify what you can do right now

What options do you have? What actions can you take right now?

This becomes the key question. In the case of the non-communicating RTU, we need to list out our options:

1. Do nothing and blame the mechanical (sadly, this is an actual option).
2. Order the interface card and take the financial hit.
3. Submit a change order and directly wire up the unit to a controller.

Those are just three options off the top of my head. Each option has pros and cons and we need to consider them so that we can...

Step Three: Pick the most right available option

Often we have several things we can do to get a project back on track. I like to call these the “available options”.

This is where Step 1 comes in. You may have 20 available options, but the trick is finding the one option that contributes most to resolving the issue identified in Step 1.

There are many factors that impact project performance but the big 3 are Quality, Time, and Cost. This concept is commonly called the Project Management Triangle.

If you increase quality, you must increase time or cost. There is an interrelationship between the variables. As you evaluate your available options, it's up to you to build your own triangle. Weight the variables that matter to you.

Maybe cost isn't a factor (just go with me on this), but rather keeping the customer happy so that you can win phase two of a project is. In this case, you would look at all options through the lens of winning phase two of the project.

Once you've identified your key factors/variables, then all you need to do is repeat these 3 steps until your project is under control.

Conclusion

It's not hopeless. Even the most dismal project can be turned into at least a neutral event. What strategies and approaches do you use to gain control of out-of-control projects? Let me know in the comments below.