Fergus O'Connell is one of the world’s leading authorities on project management and getting things done. He is the author of eight novels and sixteen business books, including Simply Brilliant, a book about common sense and how to use a power you already have.
Obviously, the only way you can know for sure whether your project is in trouble or not is to (a) have a properly estimated plan and (b) be monitoring properly against it. Those issues are discussed elsewhere here. However, there are a number of signs I have seen over the years which are guaranteed to raise the hairs on the back of my neck and may be indicative of trouble.
Some of these are not exactly objective or measurable, but in those cases, common sense gives us the reasoning.
I’ve also shown what action to take if you encounter a particular situation.
1. No plan
Sign: No plan at all. Or a very sketchy plan. Or very little detail in the plan.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Certainty. In my experience, this means the project has no plan to speak of.
Common sense reasoning: Apparently it was Benjamin Franklin who pointed out that ‘if we fail to plan we plan to fail’.
Action to take: Build a properly estimated plan. Here’s how to do that.
2. No effort (work) in the plan
Sign: The plan is actually a timeline. It doesn’t contain estimates of the amount of effort (work) to be done.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Very High. Also, very likely that people are working very long hours in order to stick to the timeline and keep the project on schedule.
Common sense reasoning: If nobody has figured out how much work has to be done then it’s very unlikely that there are enough people to do all the work.
Action to take: Calculate the effort required (in person-days) to complete the project. If you’re wondering how to do good estimation, it’s here.
3. Stories
Sign: Stories are great in novels or in movies; they’re generally very bad in projects. If you (a) ask the team what the project is about, or (b) ask to see a copy of the plan, or (c) ask for the status (especially this) and they start to give you a story: ‘This happened and then that happened and then so and so did this and that person went there.’
Probability that the project is in trouble: High.
Common sense reasoning: They’re telling you a story because they have nothing more useful to tell you.
Action to take: Build a properly estimated plan.
4. GGGGGGR
Sign: No, it’s not an expression of frustration or anger – though if this happens to you, you’ll be frustrated and very angry indeed.
It’s when a project manager reports a project Green – On Target, week after week and then suddenly jumps out of the cake and announces that it’s Red – In Big Trouble.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Very High – Certainty.
Common sense reasoning: I’m not saying this can’t happen on a project but it’s very rare. What’s far more likely is that the project manager hasn’t been reporting the status honestly – either because they didn’t know it; they knew it but would much have preferred they didn’t know it; they knew it, would much have. preferred they didn’t know it and weren’t going to tell anybody until they really had to.
Action to take: This project should be the subject of forensic examination to determine what’s been going on. You’ll probably have to build a properly estimated plan. If it were me, I would also tell the project manager that if s(he) ever did anything like that again.
5. No status reports
Sign: Assuming that (ideally, weekly) status reports have been issuing, if the project manager misses a week, I’d be very concerned. If they miss two weeks in a row, my experience has been that it’s a certainty that the project is in major doo-doo.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Missed 1 week – Medium. Missed 2 weeks in a row – Certainty.
Common sense reasoning: The project manager is too busy putting out fires on the project to write a status report. These fires mean the project is in some kind of – could be very serious – trouble.
Action to take: This project should be the subject of forensic examination to determine what’s been going on. You’ll probably have to build a properly estimated plan to complete the project.
6. This is a very aggressive schedule/deadline
Sign: Somebody – usually a boss, very senior / important boss / greatest of all bosses / stakeholder / project sponsor / customer – says this.
Probability that the project is in trouble: For me personally in my career, this has proven to be a Certainty. My experience has been that anyone who says this has usually parted company with reality. To be balanced though, let’s call it High.
Common sense reasoning: This is a very interesting one. It’s meant to be a motivator but really, it’s more about the bullishness of the speaker i.e. it motivates the speaker but no one else. It’s also a way of saying, ‘we have absolutely no idea how to get this done.’
Action to take: This is often said at the beginning of projects and so you have the chance to do something about it before it grows into a nightmare. You need to build a properly estimated plan.
7. We have a high-level plan
Sign: You ask whether a project has a plan and this is what you’re told.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Certainty. In my experience this means the project has no realistic plan to speak of.
Common sense reasoning: if they had a proper plan they would show it to you.
Action to take: Build a properly estimated plan.
8. Heavy multitasking
Sign: The organization is one where people are doing lots of multitasking i.e. they’re spread across many (i.e. more than a handful of) things.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Medium – High. Also, very likely that people are working very long hours in order to stick to the timeline and keep the project on schedule.
Common sense reasoning: Multitasking is catastrophic for productivity as this post shows.
Action to take: Calculate people’s real availability and factor that into the plan. You can use our calculator to do this.
9 We’re 90% done
Sign: When asked what the status of the project is, the project manager says, ‘we’re 90% done’.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Medium – High.
Common sense reasoning: The terrifying ‘we’re 90% done’ which usually means that 90% of the scheduled project time has gone – not that 90% of the thing has been done.
Action to take: if the project is 90% done it should be possible to demonstrate this objectively. So, there should be (a) a detailed plan and (b) evidence that 90% of the jobs on the plan have been completed. If not, then the project is not ‘90% done’.
10. We don’t have time to plan the project, just go do it
Sign: Somebody – usually a boss, very senior / important boss / stakeholder / project sponsor / customer – says this.
Probability that the project is in trouble: High – Certainty.
Common sense reasoning: It will always take longer and cost more to firefight your way through a project, than to build a proper plan and then execute that plan.
Action to take: There is some good news here. This is often said at the beginning of a project and so you have the chance to do something about it before it grows into a nightmare. Insist that a detailed, properly estimated plan is built and agreed upon.
11. Great
Sign: You ask the project manager the status of the project and this is all you get.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Medium – High if it’s accompanied by any of these here. Probably good to know about these anyway!
Common sense reasoning: First of all, this is in no way an acceptable status update on a project. If the project is going well it should be possible to demonstrate that objectively.
Action to take: So, there should be (a) a detailed, properly estimated plan and (b) progress against that plan should show that the project is on target.
12. You’ve got to work smarter, not harder
Sign: Somebody – usually a boss, very senior / important boss / stakeholder / project sponsor / customer – says this to the project team. (Usually at a time when the team is already working crazy hours anyway.)
Probability that the project is in trouble: High.
Common sense reasoning: What does this actually mean? It has no meaning. It is usually said by people who know that there is a problem with the project and who have no idea how to fix it.
Action to take: So, you need to put in place a detailed, properly estimated plan showing what remains to be done on this project.
13. People working very long hours
Sign: This is related to number 2 earlier.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Very High.
Common sense reasoning: If people are working very long hours, it is highly likely because there aren’t enough people to do all the work that needs to be done. People work very long hours to try to close this gap and keep the project on schedule.
14. We have constantly changing priorities
This is related to number 2 earlier.
Probability that the project is in trouble: Very High.
Common sense reasoning: If people are working very long hours, it is highly likely because there aren’t enough people to do all the work that needs to be done. People work the very long hours to try to close this gap and keep the project on schedule.
Read more from Fergus O'Connell
Fergus O'Connell, Novelist, Project Manager, Teacher, Speaker
Fergus O'Connell is one of the world’s leading authorities on project management and getting things done. He is the author of eight novels and sixteen business books, including Simply Brilliant, a book about common sense and how to use a power you already have.
He founded his first project management company – ETP – in 1991. His disruptive, common-sense project management method, The Ten Steps, has influenced a generation of project managers. In 2003, this method was used to plan and execute the Special Olympics World Games, the world’s biggest sporting event that year. Fergus’ new company, Fast Projects, is again disrupting the project management space by focusing on speeding up projects / shortening time to market.
