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What would you do to get the project back on schedule?

Posted in Project Management on February 14, 2012
There are (4) comments permalink

George is a Project Manager for a solar power company. His team is made up of in-house technical & finance people, outside construction contractors, as well as developers who are part of a company joint venture. George is one of three Project Managers in his company so he shares the in-house resources with the other two PM’s. The outside contractors have a great reputation, but it is the first time George has worked with them. George is relatively new in his job. When he joined, he took the project over from John, one of the other project managers. John had too much on his plate and the project schedule had been slipping prior to George’s arrival.

How should George transition the project from John?
What can he do to get the project timeline back on track?
What communication tools should he use to hold his team accountable?
What meeting schedule do you recommend for George to implement?

Comments (4)

Julio posted on: August 29, 2012

Tools to be used come from lean manufacture.
VSM: it is very important to map the actual procesess, so,the transfer can be more efficient and without many "bugs".
Gant chart: list all relevant activities and set times.
Set metrics with SMART goals (Specific,Measurable,Achievable,Realistic,Time), those should be acompanied with the action plans tracker,root cause analysis and people accountable.
Procedures/proceses written defined (simple).
Formal weekly/monthly meeting to review results (accountable perssonel must participate with reults)
Leadership: strong , consistent, energizing, transforming,positive,proactive,onest.
Leadeship standard work.
Kaizen.

dpplainsman posted on: August 29, 2012

Been some time since the last posting here.
*History is a great teacher: Review all documents; review the meeting schedule and agenda; meet with stakeholders on schedule and review the agenda
*Communicate and make decisions in coordination - develop the plan
*Execute the plan and review

Projectguru posted on: April 24, 2012

I think "roynickerson" brings up several great points. Before I answer I would reiterate that the top responsibility of the Project Manager is to communicate, communicate, communicate! Then..communicate some more!
Let me break this up into a few replies to answer fully
-Transitioning a project during execution can always be a challenge. I would start with a full in-house scope review with the team and a deep dive into all documents (contracts, designs, scopes of work, etc). Additionally, don't alienate John as you may need him as a resource, but you also need to make sure there is a clear line of responsibility for the project. Once my in-house homework is complete I would have design/update reviews with the outside contractors. Developing a positive repoire and opening lines of communication is key objective here.
There is limited space here so I will put my full response under things to know in the Project Management Forum

roynickerson posted on: April 16, 2012

•How should George transition the project from John? Carefully. You have to take the long view and remember that you may need John''s help at some point.
•What can he do to get the project timeline back on track? Collect the stakeholders and reaffirm tasks and objectives.
•What communication tools should he use to hold his team accountable? In this predicament, the best course is to go on-site and look all involved in the eye.
•What meeting schedule do you recommend for George to implement? He should figure out whether the previous meeting schedule was an issue or if the content and/or the conduct of the previous meetings produced problems. Then he should consider making changes.