Welcome

Welcome back to ValueKey Labs, the newsletter that's more informative than that project status report that you simply copied and pasted from last month. In this issue :

• How to rescue mission critical projects

It seems like there have been more than a few examples in the media recently of projects that have required rescuing. In this issue we take a look at what rescue steps can be taken to get projects back on track.

Rescue of mission critical projects..

Sometimes mission critical projects run into trouble…

Consider NASA Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, initially scheduled for an eight-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), found themselves in an extended stay lasting more than nine months.

In case you didn't catch it in the media, they travelled to the ISS on board Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner as part of Boeings project for its first crewed test flight.

During the 25-hour flight, Starliner experienced helium leaks and a malfunctioning thruster, which helps steer and control re-entry. When it arrived on June 6 -2024, four more of the 28 thrusters failed, delaying docking with the station.

After an initial repair of some of the thrusters, NASA deemed the spacecraft too risky for human travel and sent it back empty.

The upshot, Williams and Wilmore were stranded on the ISS.

After much political posturing and back and forth (over 8 months), a rescue plan was eventually hatched between NASA and SpaceX to bring the stranded astronauts home on SpaceX's Crew Dragon.

Finally, last Tuesday morning, Wilmore and Williams strapped inside Crew Dragon spacecraft along with two other astronauts and finally undocked from the ISS to embark on their 17-hour trip back home to Earth.

The reality is that things often go wrong with organisations mission critical projects and they require rescuing. How quickly we turn them around makes all the difference to whether they achieve a successful outcome or not.

Here are 10 steps to help Projects in need of rescue?

1. Acknowledge the problem: Don't delay in acknowledging that the project is in trouble in the hope that it will eventually "come right". Not acknowledging there is a problem often results in throwing good money after bad.
2. Issue stop work order - where possible work should be stopped or paused to reduce further spend, particularly in relation to the purchase of hardware / software.
3. Revisit the Project’s Objectives - Conduct a thorough review of the project's objectives, business case, documentation, and methodology etc.
4. Undertake stakeholder interviews - interview major stakeholders or their representatives (usually fewer than 10 people). Guarantee anonymity to encourage frank and honest assessments of problems and issues.
5. Diagnose the root causes -Stakeholder interviews typically identify several problems in general terms, such as "high complexity" or "unclear objectives." These kind of responses lack the situational specificity needed to address issues effectively. Probe these causes with increasingly detailed questions that reveal specific details.
6. Set clear recovery objectives / boundaries - How much cost or investment is too much for a rescue? Not all projects or programs can or should be rescued, so build an understanding with stakeholders on their cost appetite for rescue is important.
7. Gather the right people & carve out the recovery plan Assemble a team by bringing together the necessary expertise and resources to support the rescue effort. Create a detailed plan outlining the steps needed to address the problems and achieve the recovery objectives.
8. Re-engage key stakeholders - Once all the preparations have been made, gather the key sponsors, stakeholders and decision-makers into one room — ideally face to face. Work through different prepared scenarios / options and agree on next steps.
9. Execute the rescue plan - once agreement on the rescue plan is confirmed, kick-off its execution.
10. Monitor progress and adjust continuously - track the rescue effort performance against the revised metrics. Adjust as needed and be flexible, making iterative improvements based on feedback and new developments.

Regardless of the size of the project, be it mission critical or a small project. Being aware of the indicators that demonstrate or forecast a project is in trouble and being prepared to act quickly can make all the difference.

The issue of ValueKey Labs is dedicated to my friend Noel Robinson from Rocket Projects, you continue to push me to higher hights.

Thanks

Guy Thorpe - aka The Project Guy

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