{"id":1344,"date":"2008-10-27T22:39:44","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T05:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/2008\/10\/27\/project-doldrums\/"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:33:27","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:33:27","slug":"project-doldrums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=1344","title":{"rendered":"Project Doldrums"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Doldrums\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0Horror Story No. 2: Project Doldrums<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s budget time. The team is listless – no enthusiasm for the project as no one believes that the product will work. Yet here we drift toward starting a new clinical trial.<\/p>\n

The intrepid PM\u00a0declares a willingness to present a ‘no go’ budget to management – inquiring: “What new data do we have that would allow management to step back from this decision that they made to proceed less than a year before?”<\/em><\/p>\n

The room reverberates with silence.<\/p>\n

The intrepid PM asks: “What work could we do to generate data to convince management to STOP?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Slowly the team starts to describe experiments and to list the work required to produce the necessary material. We discuss which work needs to come first, how the data is likely to come out, and how to ‘weigh the preponderance of the evidence’ in a year.<\/p>\n

The intrepid PM asks: “What if we got positive results from these experiments (however unlikely)?\u00a0 Would we feel excited, comfortable moving forward?”<\/em> And the team said: YES!<\/p>\n

\"GrimThe Horror: <\/strong>The program eventually died several years later of natural causes – no one wanted to kill it, no one wanted to support it, so the project lagged and lagged and eventually died. I suspect one possible reason the project limped along was to avoid any more layoffs by keeping staff busy until the ‘next best thing’ came along.<\/p>\n

Scary Lessons: <\/strong>It appears this project suffered from a lack of sponsorship and ongoing review of the project portfolio.\u00a0 Once\u00a0the project was launched, management seems to have washed their hands of it and moved on to other priorities.\u00a0 The team also appears to have become caught up in the doldrums of a project where the link to corporate strategy was lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How essential it is to remain connected to strategy, your sponsor, and to the hearts and minds of your team!\u00a0 Here are just a few suggestions to consider when the grim reaper starts heading your way:<\/p>\n