How to Handle a Project Management Crisis

How to handle a PM crisisThere are many examples of failed projects all over the world. Like the St. Helena airport, built on a island in the vast open Atlantic Ocean, known for it’s volcanic mountain rising 2600 feet above the sea. The reason for the airport’s opening being postponed indefinitely: “too windy for planes to land” (Source: International Project Leadership Academy). They failed to address the risks or to listen to the advice of experts.

Another project disaster and one of the most expensive scandals in modern history in September 2015, the admission that Volkswagen cheated government emission testing. The engineers intentionally designed and installed a so called “defeat device” into the engine’s control computer. The defeat device was programmed to detect when the car was undergoing emissions testing in order to adhere to the testing limits for clean-air standards. The technology needed to comply with the government regulations was available, but was decided against due to high costs and to protect profit margins.

On a smaller scale project disasters happen quite often, even on IT projects, for example when a record number of high defects are logged during a testing phase leading to re-design and expensive re-development work to the point where committed deadlines are missed or almost missed.

In following good Project Risk Management practice, you will always plan risk management upfront, identify all the risks, perform proper risk analysis (qualitative, quantitative), plan risk responses including assigning risks to owners and then control the risks rigorously throughout the project.

Below you will find a good approach for handling crisis on projects in the Infographic brought to you by Wrike free task management tools.

Let us know in the comments what project management crisis you have come across and how it was handled.

How to Handle a Project Management Crisis

How To Manage Projects In Today’s Risk Economy

By Fredy Rhoehrs
How To Manage Projects In Today’s Risk EconomyPlenty of risk, slow growth and unpredictable forecasting is what I hear when I am speaking with project managers today. Large organizations are facing big challenges in today’s economy. The most obvious of these is the euro zone’s debt crisis, which will limit growth for companies across the entire world.

More preoccupied with risks than opportunities, companies will remain cautious in their spending and project management investments.

“When a risk occurs, with some ingenuity, this may open up an opportunity, and conversely when pursuing an opportunity there will be associated risks. Risks are generally deemed acceptable if the possible gains exceed the possible losses.” – Rory Burke

What’s the view?

I believe project managers today will need to have an objective view of required contingency to account for cost and schedule uncertainty as well as analyzing the cost effectiveness of risk response plans. All project managers should be able to run applications and technology in order to:

  • Identify common scheduling pitfalls that may result in misleading schedule or risk analysis results
  • Integrate pre-developed risk registers and define new risk registers
  • Address full lifecycle risk management through advanced Monte Carlo-based cost and schedule analytics
  • Report confidence levels with regards to finish dates, costs, float, internal rate of return and net present value

What’s the solution?

The solution lies in following a systematic process of identifying, analysing and responding to project risk over the full life-cycle of a project and being able to report accurately on risks and risk management plans.

One such solution is provided by Oracle’s Primavera software. Risk Analysis is a full lifecycle risk analytics solution integrating cost and schedule risk management. Primavera Risk Analysis provides a comprehensive means of determining confidence levels for project success together with quick and easy techniques for determining contingency and risk response plans.

You are invited to watch this educational video from the Primavera Youtube Channel related to how to reduce risk and complexity in large organizations:

Mega Project Management: Reducing Risk and Complexity

Let me know what your thoughts are and please enter your comments below in order to understand if your business challenges today could be resolved using Oracle Primavera.

About the author:

Fredy Roehrs is an experienced business development consultant for project management solutions in Oracle Primavera.  With proven business relationships in Middle East, Latin America and Spain; he can provide real solutions to all the project management challenges your company face today.

For a better understanding of the Oracle Primavera application click here.