is it time for a mid-project checkup?

The Summit Point Group

Is it Time for a Mid-Project “Check-Up?”

If you have managed large projects for any considerable amount of time, it has surely happened to

you. A project, for one reason or another, has not come in on time, on budget, or meeting the

expectations of the business or your customers. Worse, the project was cancelled due to

corporate cost-cutting, rapid shifts in the business environment, or possibly due to wild cost

overruns, significant schedule slips, or changes in corporate direction or strategy. In the severest

of circumstances, not only has the project been cancelled or re-planned, but careers have

suddenly changed course, even when everything appeared to be going just fine.

So what causes projects to “blow up,” requiring significant re-scoping and/or re-planning, or

possibly resulting in cancellation? Tossing aside poor management practices and incredibly bad

judgment (even though these account for their fair share of project failures), well planned and

managed projects can (and do) “fail.” Projects managed by experienced project managers and

formal PMO organizations with detailed plans and standing weekly or daily management meetings

somehow end up in trouble. Examples of scenarios might include:

Due to terrible market conditions, project funding for the corporation is cut by 50%; your

project is selected for cancellation since it carries the biggest price tag of all projects.

Your business partners are shocked, as are you, since the project would have resulted in

drastically expanded capabilities and likely, significant expansions in new business. Other

smaller projects continue.

Following months of on-plan development by several teams, little problems begin to

translate into project delays and an associated ballooning in expenses as the teams begin

preparing for integrated testing. The list of issues and needed program changes grow by

the day.

Only days after the launch of beta/pilot of your new customer platform, the message is

coming back loud and clear; your customers are not anxious to change over to the new

platform. While the platform contains many new features that they have been waiting for,

there is no easy way for them to move their business to this new platform. The cost and

expense of conversion prove to be just too much.

In the first, a full understanding of the planned return on investment by management at all levels

might have resulted in a different set of priorities and a better result for the project and the

company. In the second, plans made early in the project fully mapped all work-streams and

activities, yet over time differences in approach and interim decisions have resulted in incongruous

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solution designs, only recognized once the separate deliverables begin to be integrated. And in

the third, a lack of full understanding of current market conditions and customer requirements has

resulted in a mismatch in expectations; customers can not take advantage of new capabilities

without significant retooling and education. In each of these scenarios, there is one common

attribute; a breakdown in communication at some level has contributed to unexpected

consequences.

So the question in each of the examples above; how can the risks that cause these types of project

blow-ups be mitigated or possibly avoided? There is no one answer that can address all types of

risks, yet there are opportunities with any large project to avoid total blow-ups.

One solution to mitigating unrecognized risks and avoiding blow-ups is the introduction of

scheduled reviews; mid-project “check-ups.” During these check-ups, the following topics and

participants (among others) can be included:

Participants:

Senior management: Include the CEO, COO, CFO, CBO, CIO, and other appropriate key decision

-making members of senior management; especially those with budgetary control.

Key Stakeholders: Include owning and impacted business unit and technology department

senior officers; heads of sales and business development should be included, if appropriate to

the project. These participants will help to create and confirm the case for the project, if

questioned.

Subject matter experts: Include project leads, business leads, analysts, and others closest to

the project that are best prepared to present to the participants and answer questions. Also

included may be auditors and independent or external consultants used to evaluate the project,

plans, and current status.

Topics:

Business Case: Re-state the original business case and update any areas that may have been

revised due to changing market conditions; it is important to remind senior management why

the project is (still) important. Include a discussion of benefits, return on investment, and risks

associated with not doing/completing the project.

Project Overview/Status: Re-cap the initial project plan/budget and current status. This will

provide an opportunity to discuss any risks to budget or schedule, avoiding issues later in the

development cycle. You may also have the opportunity to ask for, and possibly secure

additional funding (if needed), as the members of senior management with budgetary control

will be present.


Is it Time for a Mid-Project “Check-Up”?



Work-stream Status: Important to the check-up, provide details regarding any changes to the

original plan, design, or assumptions. Identify and review dependencies. Gain

acknowledgement and buy-in from all required participants and their organizations. This may

help to avoid prioritization issues later.

Implementation, Roll-out, Marketing and Sales Plans: One of the key areas to review during

your check-up is deployment. Implementation and roll-out plans should be as detailed as

development plans. Your implementation and roll-out strategies, if not fully synchronized with

an overall deployment strategy could result in significant delays, customer impacts, and worst

case, a full project halt. A full vetting of plans with implementation, account management,

sales support, operations, and other involved and/or impacted areas is a must to ensure project

success.

Other topics that may be included in a mid-project check-up include discussions of legal issues or

regulatory changes, current market conditions and competitive offerings, and corporate strategy

and prioritization. The key importance being the surfacing of all potential impacts to a project;

both positive and negative.

Preparation for a mid-project check-up is as important in many ways as the check-up session itself.

In addition to preparing appropriate artifacts that may include:

Slides or documents required to cover the project overview, business case, market

conditions, and current status

Budget with actual expenditures and projections

Current project plan(s)

Demo, prototype, or other visuals

Deployment plans

Sales, marketing, or other business development plans

Time should be spent in advance of the session to review and coordinate activities between and

across teams and operating units, placing particular emphasis upon dependencies, design and build

methods, and integration points. A strong focus should also be placed upon implementation and

roll out planning, especially if the project entails greatly enhancing or otherwise replacing and

existing system. Key questions to be answered or otherwise addressed might include:

Will (and how) data need to be converted? Current? Historic?

Do users (customers, internal operations, etc.) need to be retrained?

What will be the impact to existing business methods and processes?

Are there interfaces that will need to change?

Have all of the stakeholders, participants, customers, and others that will be

impacted been advised or otherwise notified of the coming changes? And signed

off?


About the author: David Coleman is the Managing Director of The Summit Point Group, a strategic

management and technology consulting firm. A former Fortune 100 senior technology executive, he is an

accomplished mortgage industry executive offering more than 20 years of demonstrated success developing

and executing strategies for major business and technology initiatives, turn-around transitions, and

operational start-ups. He has a track record of spearheading innovation, driving productivity, reducing costs,

and expanding business.

[email protected]


Will additional staffing be required?

Is there a communication plan?

The change brought about by a large or significant project that requires customers (especially

other businesses) to train staff, modify systems, and possibly gain funding to make the required

changes, will likely call for a different deployment strategy than one for a project that delivers

small or incremental change. Impacts to a project might include introduction of plans for a phased

(more time and money) implementation, greater testing time for integration, or increased support

staffing. Not considering implementation and roll-out of a new or significantly changed system

during development planning could introduce unintended risks. The mid-project check-up is a

perfect time to review and validate these plans.

A complete and thorough review of the project in preparation for the mid-project check-up is the

only way to gain full and complete value from the activity. Yes, gathering artifacts and developing

slides or other documents for presentation to the senior management team is of value. Yes,

bringing key stakeholders together for a review and discussion of project progress and go-forward

plans will help ensure that everyone is engaged, bought in, and thoughtful. Yes, the mere effort

of preparation will potentially surface issues, risks, and other needed activities. But also hiring,

appointing, or selecting a team of seasoned and knowledgeable external or cross-divisional subject

matter experts will help to provide a view of your project that you may not otherwise get. Coming

from an arms-length position, this group will be able to ask questions, evaluate methods, validate

dependencies, and bring a fresh perspective to the real status of the project. Free to gain a view

across teams, units, and divisions, this team may have the opportunity to identify issues (and

opportunities) that might otherwise have been overlooked, helping you to prepare for a full and

complete check-up.

With the introduction of Program Management Offices, Program Management Professionals, and

modern project management methods, it could be easy to discard a mid-project check-up as being

redundant with something that you do all day, every day. But if you have a large, complex and

expensive project, or one that will have significant customer impact, consider the possible value

that can be gained through an arms-length project review and a “Mid-Project Check-Up” with your

team, your partners, your stakeholders, and your senior management team. This short and

relatively inexpensive exercise may well help to avoid another project “blow-up” . . . yours.

mailto:[email protected]

is it time for a mid-project checkup?

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