Projects do not always progress as planned. It is not uncommon for projects to begin showing symptoms of failure. There are several reasons which can cause a project to experience lower performance than planned. Common issues include low labor productivity, cost overrun, schedule delays, missing target dates, growing technical and quality issues, resource limitations, scope creep, and lack of proper communication. Each project has its own unique characteristics and need to be analyzed independently. In the absence of robust in-house solutions to get back on-track, acquiring a project management consultant with an outside perspective can be a viable solution to rescue the project.
3Targets professionals throughout the long years of industry experience and supported by strong academic background have developed a vigorous step-by-step process to perform in-depth reviews and analyses of projects. These reviews focus on the causes of low performance and lead developing specific detailed actions for prompt recovery. The entire process also includes setting priorities for those issues which need to be addressed earlier than others. There are usually more than one recovery strategy that can be incorporated to catch up the performance. The process which is being implemented by 3Targets experts generally follows below steps:
- Review project plans, control records, key metrics, and status reports
- Interview with key project members to obtain more insight on the issues
- Review the data and looking for trends
- Analyze the observed trends and root cause analysis of the symptoms
- Identify and develop alternatives to recover the root causes of low performance
- Present the alternatives to the project team with their respective pros and cons and decide the most effective course of action
- Support the project team to incorporate the selected alternative
- Monitor the effectiveness of the selected recovery actions, re-assess the performance by watching the trends and fine-tune the plan, as needed
The process of analyzing, developing, and incorporating the recovery plan takes from a few weeks to a few months. The duration varies depending on the project size, complexity, and the extent of deviation from project’s original plan.
Prevention is better than cure! As a preventive measure to ensure projects do not fall behind a point that mandates having a recovery plan, 3Targets performs regular project reviews and audits. These audits are aimed at measuring and evaluating how well projects are performing and provide recommendations to make any slight adjustments, if required. These regular reviews will generally require less time and cost to perform and serve as project’s usual health checks.
3Targets experts can discuss your specific requirements and suggest the best option that suits your project.
