Working Through Project Delays
Million- and billion-dollar projects have many moving pieces; a lot can happen between concept and completion. New information, employee turnover or changes to the budget—among various other factors—can derail a project with mounting delays and overdue tasks, leaving project managers scrambling to get back on track. These delays have the potential to snowball into significant consequences affecting budgets, data, resources, relationships and deliverables.
So how do project managers cope with schedule slips? A few key strategies can help any project manager course-correct a delayed project:
Information audits: Project managers require detailed information to make informed decisions, especially when things go awry. Missing or inaccurate information wreaks havoc on projects, creating more delays as project managers are forced to spend valuable time seeking out additional information. Knowing where project breakdowns occur is critical. An information audit identifies areas where data is missing, enabling the project manager to remain proactive in responding to project needs.
Prioritization: Once a project is audited and information is updated, project managers can prioritize and address any outstanding issues such as unforeseeable cost escalations, poor organization reputation, data errors or other negative impacts. Strong standards and detailed procedures act as a roadmap to determine top priorities and allocate resources accordingly. Prioritization also helps relieve the stress of deciding where to start when coping with a project delay.
Communicate: Project delays affect stakeholders in different ways, but effective communication can address inefficiencies and provide a collective way forward by managing expectations and overcoming conflict. EVM professionals can use variance analysis reports to steer current projects back on course as well as keep future projects from going adrift. Though brief, all variance analysis reports should include three components:
A reason statement that outlines the delay and explains why there is a schedule variance.
An impact statement that quantifies the impact of the delay and forecasts possible consequences. It identifies affected milestones, including any other implications for other work.
An action statement, or corrective action plan, that details what needs to happen to recover from the delay and assesses any foreseeable cost variances. This plan leverages existing resources and is designed to stabilize the project.
Delays need not define a project. There is a way forward through the backlog of tasks and overdue deliverables. Information audits, prioritization and communication not only save time but also enable effective management.