Get That Failing Project Back On Track

Anyone who’s worked on project teams knows there is plenty that can move a project past its deadline. It’s not uncommon for some of the work to be harder than originally anticipated, or to have turnover on the project that means you have to get new people up to speed. Sometimes you discover that activities were simply underestimated.

Regardless of how it happens, many times you’ll find that you’re trending beyond your committed deadline date. If you discover that happening, your first obligation as the project manager is to try to determine the cause. If you look for remedies without knowing the cause, you’re susceptible to having the situation recur.

What should you do after you know the cause? Should you notify the client and push the project end date out further? Not yet. The first obligation of the project manager and project team is to try to make corrections that will get the project back on track.

Prepare for overtime

Everyone hates it, but one logical place to start is over time. If people work more hours, they can get more work done in the same amount of calendar time. Overtime may be the best option if you’re close to the end of the project and just need a final push to get everything done on schedule. If you’re toward the end of the project, you also may be able to issue comp time after the project is completed. If you’re still early in the project, there are probably more effective options. This option may also have cost implications if you need to have contract resources work overtime.

Pull resources from other projects

The project manager must first understand what activities are considered most vital to the project’s success, or on the “critical path.” After all, if the project is trending over deadline, by definition it is the critical path that’s late. Once you understand the critical path, see if resources can be moved from other projects to help get the project back on track.

Review dependencies

Dependencies represent activities that must be completed in a certain order. If you’re trending over your deadline, you should revalidate dependencies, since it’s possible that the schedule is being lengthened by invalid dependencies between activities. Invalid dependencies may make it appear that activities must be performed sequentially when they can really be done in parallel.

It might also make sense to have the team members review the schedule to see if they find dependencies that the project manager thinks are valid, but that they know to be invalid. Check all dependencies to make sure you have all your facts correct before you move into more drastic measures to bring the project back on schedule.

If you’re trending over your deadline at the beginning of a long project, you have many options to solve your problem. If you’re toward the end of the project, you may have fewer options. Depending on your project situation and the impact level of not delivering on time, some of the above suggestions may work, while others could be applied better in another situation. Plenty of things can derail a project plan: underestimated tasks or misallocated resources. I hope that these methods can assist you in getting your project back on track.