A Project Reality Check

A Project Reality Check

Sometimes people are absorbed in their work and omit to recognize the most trivial mistakes which stick out a mile and even the laymen spot them. Therefore time to time they need to pull their heads out of the work and check the project detachedly. In this way people dealing with the project can get a focus and gather momentum. These occasions can be informal and formal as well, the point is that workers see they are proceeding the right way - or on the contrary - and a chart with the path to the end is made.

The signs that a project has to be examined are the followings: when the resources are over allocated even though the project manager reorganizes them over and over again, when there are too many risks associated with the project, or when the project plan is redefined markedly many times.

To be successful with project reality check, there are questions to be asked inevitably. The first one is: "Has the project scope changed?" There is not good or bad answer, the essence is that managers and workers get a clear picture on what is going on and can adapt them to the changed situation. Implicitly small scope creeps are natural but if there is a completely new end result in view something must be done.

The next helpful question sounds this way: "Are the resources still committed?" It can happen that for some reason supporters back off or even the workers become doubtful and are not animated any longer e.g. because they perceive the project that cannot be performed by the appointed time. A good tool for this case is a mitigation plan which prevents the burnout if the previously mentioned circumstances emerge.

Last but not least: "Can the project finish on time?" If not, the stakeholders and decision makers must be informed. Realizing such a problem the earlier the better.

Of course there are other good check point questions as well but these three must be addressed to discover the potential threats to the burnout of the project.

Controlling Change Requests in Projects

"Changes requested once a project is underway are an inevitable part of any project." The reasons for change can be very various but one thing is in common: they must be noticed. The two main kinds of these are the changed external factors and the internal changes requested. Dealing with external factors is worse since these were for sure not the result of a managerial decision, the project plan has to adapt to the new conditions. In this sense internal shift is better because the involved parties can comprehends the importance of such a requirement.

5 Essentials to Project Team Success

The most important factor that can lead to project success is the positive behaviour of the project team. A checklist of what needs to be done includes: team composition