As much as most senior IT professionals and project managers don't want to admit it, sometimes projects do go haywire. There's always the potential for the deadline or budget to blow-out, equipment orders to go wrong, staff to get sick or resign-â€"the list of possibilities is endless.
I know you can always say, -but if you planned properly, that wouldn't happen". That may be so 90 percent of the time, but sometimes problems will crop up which you just hadn't anticipated.
Then what do you do?
There's the scapegoat route-â€"find someone or something to blame for the mistake and try to either fire or sue them. While this may be necessary in extreme circumstances, there's the potential that taking that course of action could seriously damage team morale, not to mention possible legal ramifications. Is such drastic action really needed when something goes wrong?
Some CIOs talk about assessing where the problems were on projects that hadn't been carried out to their satisfaction. This could involve trying to eliminate those issues that could crop up in future implementations, or putting in place plans to minimise the impact of these issues.
Damage control is another tactic that may need to be adopted when projects fail or go off course--explaining to management, the board and affected departments about how the tech team is going to deal with the issues.
Whatever approach you take, managing projects that aren't going well is not generally considered a fun part of an IT professional's career. That said, it probably won't be described as lacking in challenge either.
How does your IT department deal with projects that don't run to plan? What is the best approach to take when things go wrong?
Please send your comments to Talkback below or e-mail us your tips to itmanager@zdnet.com.au
10%
8%
