Project Triage and Remediation

There are two types of project managers, those with projects that have "gone south" and those that will. It happens more frequently that we like to admit and it will eventually happen to even the best project managers. When it does, the project manager should be prepared to identify and correct the problem.

Triage is a medical term that describes the sorting of patients to establish treatment priority. Project triage is a process used to quickly evaluate a troubled project and prioritize actions based on the current status. It is performed by the project manager when a project is determined to be in trouble.

Project triage and remediation is a variation of the Deming Cycle or Plan, Do, Check, and Act, and consists of Assessment, Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Revisions to the project plan.

The first step is to gather information about the current state of the project. The project manager should use all the tools available to him or her including a complete review all documents in the project repository and conduct interviews with the project team, stakeholders, and sponsors. The interviews may be individually or in groups.

Next, the project manager will analyze all the data to establish a current state baseline. Tools like Earned Value will indicate if the project is behind schedule or over budget, but will not identify the problem or its causes so the project manager must dig deeper. Additional tools include brainstorming, affinity diagrams, force field analysis, and flowcharts like the Ishikawa diagram are used as needed to pinpoint the root cause of the problem.

When the problem and its cause(s)are identified, the project manger will prepare situation report with recommended corrective actions and present it to the project sponsors. The report should present an honest evaluation of the problem and its causes. It should also describe the process used to analyze the situation and contain a prioritized list of recommendations to correct the underlying problems.

When the recovery plan is approved by the project sponsors, the project manager will implement the recommended actions to correct the underlying problems to bring the project back on track. The project manager should continuously monitor the success indicators to be sure that the recommended actions actually resolve the problem and if needed, the project manager should be prepared to repeat the process to recommend additional corrective actions.

The project manager should also be prepared to provide frequent project updates and status reports during remediation because project sponsors and stakeholders may be closely watching the situation.

The final step is to integrate the corrective action plan into the project plan and update all project documentation to reflect the new project status including the project schedule, budget and resource management plans. This is also a good time to document any lessons learned for future projects while the events are still fresh in mind.

Project triage and remediation is intended quickly get the project back on track. It is not intended to address other organizational needs such as training, methodology or culture.