When happens when your project fails!!!!

The past few weeks have been a world wind.  Going from being really optimistic about a project and feeling good about the amount of planning and risk mitigation seemed to spell success early on.  We even restructured the timing and resources to accommodate the needs of the project on the fly with stunning success.  After looking at the risk plan and the projected final milestone, I saw something really bad in the way.  The need for untested and invalidated software to make the entire project successful.  I thought I had the resources to mitigate this risk.  I though the project had the visibility to make proactive changes in code when required.  I was wrong!!  Not only did I fail to get validation on the fix in the lab, I relied on a senior architects word that he has resolved this for other customers in a way that is within our scope of work.  The interesting part was the resource going silent during the project and making requests of his schedule early on placing the project at risk.  Why didn’t I ask for Proof?  Why did I not ask for references?  I guess I trusted the source and that was the risk I should have identified.  Even more, I relied on a host of individuals that happened to disappear once the project became critical and needed their update.  It could suggest one or two things.

  • The experts where feeding me incorrect information and really did not understand the project.  I immediately dismissed that claim due to several meetings with detail explanation of the problem and needed outcomes.
  • The played the white night.  That is a term I used to identify people that want to come in and save the project.  They also want to make sure they are the resource choosing for the project.   At first I dismissed that thought, but had o consider it after some continued research into the problem.    What do you do when failure is an option?

I considered folding and allowing he project to just fail.  That sounds bad, but sometimes there are no logical work abounds that are immediately viable.  In addition, we rely heavily on the product group to define a roadmap inclusive of these changes to benefit these types of changes.  I was in a real pickle.  The status report had a red maker on the key milestone.  My risk plan was now front and center.  It showed the theoretical failure as a real potential.

After some more searches, I found a ray of light.  What if the risk of failure was in the plan and it caused us to redirect efforts toward an alternative.  Luckily for me, this approach allowed me more time to research additional experts in this field.  It also allowed me to meet with product engineers who actually had a release coming.  I was fortunate to find an outcome supporting the actual risk that was defined in the plan.  I was also willing to allow the project to fail which seems incorrect.  Sometimes failure is needed to reach the ultimate solution.  It worked this time, but it was part of assumed experimentation that allowed me to take this road.  If this was a more aggressive project around a current product, I believe this would not have been appropriate.  Have you let a project fail?

 

10 thoughts on “When happens when your project fails!!!!

  1. Jeff, your situation is definitely unique in a sense that it ended up working out for you at the end of the day. Many times a failed project could mean a job loss, or a loss or commission or multiple other consequences.

    Obviously having a plan in place in case things go south is important but in many fields it is difficult for anyone to let a project fail. At my company, a failed project means that a client cannot put on an event if we can’t get their work done in time. Not only are we going to lose out on potential revenue, but legally we could have to pay significant damages if a client’s event were to fail due to our lack of completion on time. Not to mention the negative publicity in the industry.

    I have often heard of projects going south half way through but we do what we need to ensure the work is done. Even if that means at times we end up working for no profit or even a small loss. If we committed to a project and quoted it at a certain price that the client accepted, we’re responsible for completing that project if our costs were to rise for what ever reason.

  2. I’d agree that your situation is pretty unique, Jeff. I think that using the failure of a project (or threat of failure) is a useful option to mitigate the risk of losing the entire project or the entire account. It is possible that a client may know for certain that they want one product, but then the failure of developing that final product may expand their horizons or open their eyes to an alternative. Probably not a great idea to use this method frequently on the same client, but definitely a way to get around the situation you’ve faced with the “white knights”.

  3. I can’t imagine the kind of stress this situation would have put me in. Kudos to you for staying so level-headed and optimistic and figuring out a way to accomplish what you needed! That kind of attitude is essential for whatever project anyone is working on and that’s one thing I took away from this post. I also understand being in the position of wanting to trust and rely on others working on the project; it’s tough being torn between wanting to have this trust and ensuring your project is being executed correctly. This post showed me that while having trust is important in any project, as a project manager it is also important to verify the information you are getting. So, I suppose one must find a way of exemplifying trust while still reaching out to check the information. Finding this balance is something I will have to consider more in my future projects.

  4. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to admit that our decisions are not going the way we expected them. Even thought it is a failure, we need to approach it differently. Yes, failure is bad but it is through failure that we learn to approach things differently in the future. Failure, for example, can open the door to better ideas with different possible outcomes. When executing a project, there will be changes and bumps along the way but it’s up to the the person executing the project to be able to solve and learn from those changes and bumps that occur along the way.

  5. First of all, the amount of stress you are under must be unbearable! However, look at you..still standing! You had an idea and a plan and when you saw that there might be a set back, you found your silver lightning and made it work. Not an easy task whatsoever, I am sure that every person commenting on this article has been through a situation like that and that is why we are glad it worked out for you. If you want to think about it positively, this was a hard lesson for you but it has now prepared you for the situations you might face in the future. Personally, I like to think very optimistically and that is why I try and find the positive side of all the bad things that happen. I would recommend you do the same and never ask yourself if failure is an option because it never should be. Things will be better.

    Edwin C

  6. Hello Jeff,

    I believe you have encountered a problem that many project managers must to go through at some point. In your case, it ended up being alright that the project was left to fail, but in many other instances it is difficult, if not more troublesome to let a project fail. I know that I am scatterbrained in times of stress and that if things were not going the way they were planned, I would probably freak out. However, the fact that you could pull through says a lot about your character.

    This post has given me a perspective of an issue I most probably will encounter at some time in my life and I think from your post and the comments as well, I can gain some useful experience.

  7. It is not always easy admitted that you did something wrong. Its good that you admit that you failed in the project. However, like you mentioned sometimes failure is needed. I agree with this statement. I think that sometimes we have to fail and actually learn and be able to fix the mistakes that we made in the first place.

  8. We’ve all been in your situation where all seems dire and it’s admirable how you handled it and found an alternative to ultimately succeed. At some point in time, I think we have all let a project fail – me included. I empathize with having poor group members, but in the end it seems like you learned a lot about how to handle a project and what to do better in the future. Good work!

  9. Jeff, I don’t think you were wrong when you asked a senior to help you with the situation, perhaps it was a mistake on his part. Maybe next time you will look for a second opinion when encountering errors with a project. I don’t think you failed, I think stuff wasn’t working out and it was leading to failure, but you turned it around and fixed it. I think that was just a downside to your project, but not a failure that helped you solve the issue. You used your resources when times were rough, so you ended up succeeding in the end, so there was no failure and that’s what matters.

  10. Although admitting that you have failed is stressful and not easy to do, it is sometimes necessary to improve your project and succeed in the end. I think that group projects are a great way to work together to complete a task at a faster pace, but with poor group members the project is often delayed and not completed well. Since you worked with resources (good and bad) and tried to make the best out of your situation, your “failure” can be looked at as an success because you learned a lesson and tried your best.

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