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Project Recovery Presentations

The Back From Red^TM Lecture Series, a group of interactive lectures focusing on the human aspect of project failure.

Subjects include:

Below is a partial list of the organizations that have or will be presented to:

Finding Gold in Red Projects

The ability to deliver initiatives that make breakthroughs in the business is the differentiator of a truly successful IT department. However, the project success rates are very poor. Failure rate estimates range from 40-75% of project are over budget, late, or fail to deliver the required functionality.

Failing projects are prevalent in all industries and, although the actual failure rates are very subjective, the incidence of troubled projects is easily more than half of all projects. Finding the Gold in Red Projects looks at the value in performing a formal recovery on a red projects. It uses current and historical data, case studies and the presenters twenty-five years experience of recovering projects to illustrate the process.

People or Process: Which Has the Greater Effect on Project Success

People or Process, as the name implies, looks directly at the role of people versus process in a project’s success or failure. The focus on process is a needed component, but does not obviate the need to manage people. Unfortunately, the trend over the last fifteen years has been to focus on process and reduce the project to a checklist of tasks. This has created a culture that neglects the value of a manager with people skills.

Negotiation and Project Management

People often fail to realize how many actions in life are negotiation based. This is no different for a project recovery. The recovery process is really a large negotiation process. One must realize this to ensure they collect the correct information for preparing and proposing the new plan. Without treating the recovery this way, it will be difficult, at best, and will normally fail. This presentation covers the recovery process, but focus on the negotiation aspects.

This presentation covers:

Back from Red: Recovering Failing Projects

Estimates for the annual cost of project failure are as high as two trillion dollars a year. The rates for projects being at risk are in the 60-70% range, and a quarter of all project's problems are so bad they are simply canceled prior completion. Preferably, all projects will run according to plan. However, moving from a 60% failure rate to 0% is unrealistic. First, organizations must understand what it is that makes their projects fail. Reasons range from methodology to human failure to poorly understood concepts to scope creep. Analyzing projects as systems uncovers all the factors that can contribute to failure.

Back From Red: Recovering Failing Projects describes the key elements in recovering red projects. It is based on the process that Mr. Williams developed while recovering dozens of projects. It covers:

Estimating: The Sociological Effects in a Group

Estimates are required multiple times in a project. Project members need to make estimates for a variety of reasons, these include:

The amount of time for a task;
The cost for resources;
The cost of software, hardware and other materials;
The time required to finish a task.

However, there are many problems with estimates. This presentation focuses on the sociological and psychological aspects of doing estimates.

Methodology's Role in Project Success

Most organizations have only one methodology that they use for running projects. However, most organizations perform many different types of projects—deploying hardware, developing new products, deploying off-the-shelf software and upgrading existing tools. Some methodologies are much better for specific styles of projects. Therefore, the organization needs a portfolio of processes. Phasing, Critical Chain and Agile methodologies all have valuable attributes that can be applied in specific areas.

This presentation covers:

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