Chapter 13 – Solving common project problems
1. Responsibility beyond your authority
• Ask your sponsor to publish a charter for all the stakeholders. Make sure that it strongly designates your authority on this project
• Explain the reason behind the project, and give them the background necessary to understand its importance to the organization
• Involve them in setting up your primary means of communication.
• Make assignments easy to understand and track
• Show them how they fit into the project
• Give them updates on the project even during times when they aren’t actively involved.
• Develop a strong relationship with your sponsor by keeping him or her informed of your plans and your progress.
2. Disaster Recovery
• Start at the beginning with the project
• Using the work breakdown structure and critical path analysis, figure out the best possible schedule scenario, assuming infinite resources.
• Use the actual performance so far to create realistic estimates, and include the team in the estimating process.
• Frequent status meetings focused on completing near-term tasks will keep you on top of progress and allow you to solve problems early.
3. Reducing the time to market
• Fast, focused performance demands a solid foundation. Getting agreement on authority, decision structures, and responsibilities among the participating groups will ensure that you don’t waste time fighting organizational battles during the project.
• Choose a several review points where you can reevaluate the functions of the products against the available resources and deadlines.
• Develop a detailed plan for every phase.
• Build quality checks into the project every step of the way.
• Be clear about responsibilities and track schedule progress rigorously.
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