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I used to run a consulting practice where all we did was technical project rescues. I can say it is never really fun, almost always sucks and is never easy (which was the draw for me). The range of issues is huge, from entrenched teams unwilling to adapt, to horrible leadership to just a general lack of experience. The recipe is almost always the same though, identify the gaps, increase communication, organize the project, reduce the initial scope, set some realistic deadlines, get some easy/quick wins and get both sides (IT and business) to the table to discuss reality regularly. Also, quickly get rid of negativity, if you find someone that pulls the team down and out, try to pull them aside and get to the root of it. If they can't be influenced to help positively get them off the project or out of the company quickly, like ripping the band-aid off. No one likes to talk about firing people, but reality is what it is, one bad apple on a team can destroy a project by killing morale and feeding FUD. And frankly, you aren't doing that person any favors by letting them stay and be miserable either. My 2 cents, projects need to be rescued because of weak leadership and decisions that went without being made for too long. A bad decision is almost always better than no decision, at least you have something to work with. No decision is almost always a mistake and guarantees nothing changes. |