ND8 DEVELOPMENT
Best Practice Software Development
© ND8
Monday, August 3, 2009
Trouble Shooting & Project Rescue
For those who enjoy statistics, in 1994 the Standish Group produced the first Chaos Report. Its findings were sober reading for the IT community, reporting that 31% of all projects failed and that 53% over ran, went over budget, and/or failed to deliver full scope, with a jaw dropping average cost overrun of 189%. Only 16% of projects were deemed successful.
Moving the clock forward to 2009 the latest Chaos Report shows an improvement on the 1994 figures, with 32% of projects meeting their commitments, outright failure reduced to 24% and 44% of projects challenged.
However, it represents a step backwards from the 2006 report, and track the figures back to 2000 and any improvement trend looks to have plateaued. 
These figures should surprise no one. Each project or programme is by definition a unique enterprise, bringing its own set of risks and challenges, it’s simply impossible to call each one correctly at the start.
However it remains a fact that many failures are either avoidable, or could have been averted if the right action had been taken early enough.
Recovering a project takes experience, expertise and the right set of tools, to quickly assess the situation, understand the cause(s) of the problem, and determine the correct set of actions to first stabilise the project and then take it forward.
By experience, and expertise we mean not just in processes or project management, but real comprehensive experience and expertise in all facets of application development, that builds trust with the full project team and wider business community.
Project troubleshooting and rescue is a core capability of ND8. Based on running and recovering many different projects, of all shapes and sizes, we have built up a comprehensive project audit based on real life risk factors that assesses a project from 13 different perspectives. This tool allows us to rapidly zero in on the root causes of failure, establish a disciplined framework, and set in motion a recovery plan.
We then work with your existing project team to action the recovery plan, with the aim of handing back ownership as soon as feasible.
Handing back ownership is a core aspect of our work. We believe that project recovery situations offer a huge learning opportunity for all those involved, and an opportunity to truly evaluate and change working practices. Our aim is therefore not only to recover the project at hand, but also to help build the knowledge, experience and processes within your team that help reduce the risk of project failure in the future.
Rescue Credentials
The first project I officially managed was a rescue job. A directionless project heading nowhere and achieving nothing. Together with the team we gave it some direction, both commercially and technically, and delivered. It put me on the road to a career in project management.
Two projects down the line I found myself running an altogether different beast. Unachievable deadlines, bleeding edge technology and an inexperienced team (myself very much included) combined to play havoc with the schedule and scope. Though we eventually delivered the scars and grey hairs remain with me to this day.
And so do the lessons! Virtually the same team (reformed for a different organisation) went on to deliver releases every three months, on time and to budget, over a three year period. This experience shaped our philosophy on project recovery
Since then, either in senior management positions or as an independent consultant, I’ve been called in many times to help teams turn around stalled projects and programmes.
Projects stumble for many reasons, but the root cause is very often lack of experience. With twenty five years worth of skin in the game, running projects and programmes of all shapes and sizes, it’s that experience we bring.
Very often we use Agile techniques to drag a project back onto it’s feet, harvesting what we can from what’s gone on before, and quickly developing software to demonstrate progress. In our experience Agile is superb when used for this purpose.
We can’t guarantee a successful rescue, sometimes things are too far gone, but we will tell you how it is, offer our help, and if together we believe it’s worth a go we’ll give it our best shot.