Joining a Project in Motion: Essential Questions Every Project Manager Should Ask

In my career, about half the projects I’ve been involved in have already been in flight when I’ve been asked to get involved. 50% of the time, decisions have been made, scope has been defined, milestones have been set and then the reins are handed over. Of course, not everything is always in a good state when this happens and this is a situation Project Managers find themselves in a lot. So, as a Project Manager, how do you effectively transition onto a new project?

I find these questions help me to plan an effective transition. I start with an understanding of the company and the wider context

Company and wider context

• What sort of situation are you moving into - is a turnaround in performance required, does activity need accelerating, is the project already successful and you just need to sustain it? Your response will be different depending on your situation.
• What’s the culture of the company, team and project. If there are differences between project culture and company culture, why is that? Is that helpful to the project?
• What’s the capability of the team? Where are the gaps between what the project needs from the team and what the team is able to produce or commit?
• What’s the expectation of a Project Manager in this company? Is there a role description, a set of expectations. How well has the management of the project to date met those expectations? Where there are gaps, why do they exist?

Once I understand the company in more detail, I drill down into the project performance. I like using the FOGLAMP framework for this analysis.

Project Performance

• F is for Focus. Are the team all focused on the same objective or not? If not, what are the differences?
• O is for Oversight. What oversight is there on the project? Is this appropriate and useful?
• G is for Goals. Are the goals and milestones explicit. Are they realistic? Have previous goals and milestones been achieved on time and to scope?
• L is for Leadership. What is the capability and capacity of the leadership for this project?
• A is for Abilities. What mix of skills are required and where are the gaps?
• M is for Means. Does the project have all the means in order to deliver on its expectations?
• P is for Process. Are there sufficient processes to run the project? What processes are missing that there is advantage in putting in place? Recognising there are reasons that processes are missing. Understand the reason.

All of these questions can be answered by a combination of analysing project artefacts and speaking to the project team. People who have been on the project the longest, the project historians, are particularly valuable to understand the context for a lot of previous decisions. It’s important to get context. A decision without context can look peculiar. A decision with context brings clarity.

Finally, there are standard questions I like to ask everyone I meet in the early weeks. These questions both give me a sense of the opportunity and challenge ahead, as well as enabling me to evaluate the team I am working with and their capabilities.

Questions for the Team

• What challenges are we likely to face and what can be done to prepare for them? What are the most promising under exploited opportunities? What would need to happen to realise their potential?
• What are the most formidable barriers - technical, cultural, political? What new capabilities need to be developed or acquired?
• Which elements of the culture need to be preserved and which need to change?
• What are the untouchables? What are the things that we’re not allowed to change? Why? There may be some scope that is a pet project of the Sponsor. I like to know that before I boldly proclaim to the Sponsor that there is scope we can easily and readily cut. Been there, done that ??

What questions do you have that help you get a handle on the in-flight project that you’re now responsible for?