Four Steps to Taking over a Project Midway

An experienced project manager knows the value of taking the time to build a solid foundation for a project: a thorough statement of work, team brainstorm and strategic plan are key in a successful venture. Stepping into the leadership role on a partially complete project, however, can feel like crisis mode from the very beginning. If you’re coming in to put out a fire, you may understandably feel tapped out just learning everything and keeping the project afloat.

Even in a less-than-ideal situation, however, project managers can still make space to prioritize people and creative thinking. When coming into a project midstream, four steps can help you get acquainted with the situation and build in some breathing room.

Understand Your Role

If a project needs a new manager partway through, it’s a likely bet that the transition of the previous leadership probably wasn’t a smooth one. Whether the previous manager was ousted or had a personal conflict, the team may be feeling disoriented, anxious or nervous – or all of the above. It can be a difficult world for someone new to step into.

Whether you are new to the company or moving up from within the project team, your first step is get a thorough understanding of what the project manager’s role is on the team; the previous manager may or may not have been fully living that role. What decisions fall to the project manager, and what are the expectations? Make sure you have a strong handle on this from the perspective of the project team as well as executives.

Make Sure You Have All Documentation

The best way to start getting up to speed on a project is to thoroughly review all documentation available. This will include the initial statement of work and objectives, progress reports for all subsets of the project, team member backgrounds, budget planning and reporting, stakeholder reports, crisis plans and more. Depending on when you’re coming into the project, there could be a huge amount of material to sort through, but doing so will help paint a picture of any issues and how the project is  progressing.

If you don’t find documentation for a certain area, that’s probably where your attention should be focused. If documentation has not been clear, that portion of the project may have other underlying challenges.  

Consider Company Culture

Even if you are moving to the project manager position from within the project team, your place in the company culture is changing. How are leaders viewed in the organization, and how do teams interact? Some companies follow a model of coaching leadership, while others may be functioning with an outdated “do as I say” model. If your organization is the latter, midway through a project in a new role is probably not the time to make drastic changes. That doesn’t mean you have to throw out considerations for coaching your team and connecting with them, however. Instead, go in with the understanding that they will respond to this change in different ways and may not be used to speaking frankly with their leaders.

Finally, Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Coming into a project partway often means there were challenges before you arrived. While you certainly want to address those, the project still has a timeline and budget to adhere to. If certain procedures aren’t aligned with best practices but are not truly hindering anything, consider letting them lie for now.  You will need to save your brain space for tackling the big issues and remaining flexible, adaptable and creative throughout.