Project Rescue and Project Recovery

It is sad to say that we have built large parts of our fame on rescuing projects that were about to fail or could not faintly meet the requirements of the stake holders or customer.

However, once a project is gliding off it requires experienced, psychologically sensitive fire men that take over the temporary project lead during the rescue and recovery works. Such an rescue expert needs to quickly analyse a situation and make decision to avoid further damage and to bring the activities back on track with reasonable effort and cost.

Any of our experts has worked for many different companies and a large number of different projects. It is a matter of fact that external specialists are usually summoned when it comes to fulfil critical tasks. Based on this experienced we have gained a good stack of best practices and Standard Emergency Procedures to cope with practically any kind of project misfortune and bring it back on track even if serendipity calls its tribute and turns every yet so cunning plan into maculation.

Project Rescue - Putting out fire before it starts

Logosworld Blue Elefant League offers dedicated task forces for project rescue of international SAP, ERP and SOA projects. The group is formed from a number of extremely experienced trouble-shooters who have spent their whole professional life not in a cosy planning bureau but right in the middle of the project battlefields. They solve seemingly intractable project contention and they mentor project managers to avoid paths that lead to trouble.

Project Rescue is in high demand in the recent years. The reports of failing projects soar. While this is a normal corollary when the number of real projects rise it is true that the number of failing projects is exorbitantly high. Pessimistic estimates of the big analyst firms speak of more than 50% failure ratio if they include those project whose initial ambitious goal has been changed.

A failing project is like your house burning down: it simply must not happen. And we know that there are proven precautions that prevent a house from suffering damage from a fire outbreak.

Project rescue is like the fire brigade whose holy duty is in assisting people to avoid a fire from breaking out. But if the disaster happens they are prepared to extinct fire through a well-trained set of methods. The skills to be a project rescuer are not taught in IT project management but rather in classical political and diplomatic schools, where you learn the art of mediation, compromise and risk containment. Project rescue is hence a complement to traditional project management bodies. While the latter design ideal landscape architectures a fire man deliberately shakes up the whole system to find out if the parts would fall back in consistent places after a disaster.

Project rescue is a sensitive issue. You know your project is failing but calling for external help could be extremely embarrassing. Therefore we promise maximum discretion when getting in touch with us. A rescue mission Task Force is handled by a Task Force Captain and one more First officers who lead their own Special Action Team (SAT). You normally meet the captain first who discusses with you the severity of trouble and the general strategy and constraints of action. Depending on the outcome of the talks the project manager and the Task Force Captain agree to bring in special skills SAT to resolve issues in a dedicated area.

A SAT normally acts in a form of disguise. They do not take over project management nor do they decide on behalf of the people in charge. However, they rather suggest changes in project structure and project goals and prepare the decisions accordingly. Crucial decisions will not be ordered top-down but are normally made in incubating the ideas until everybody can consent and signal White Smoke.