If you work in IT, you’ve probably seen your share of projects that need help getting back on track. I could share a lot of stories from my many years in IT in multiple organizations. The complexity and scale of what we do in IT continues to amaze me. Drawing on that experience, I want to share my tips on what to do and not to do if you find yourself taking on a troubled project.

What to do if you want to ensure success:

• First, stop the churn
• Get up to speed on the project scope, issues, and challenges as quickly as possible
• Seek to understand enough of the past to inform the future
• Focus on getting the project back on track and moving forward
• Figure out who’s who, what their respective roles are and who owns what
• Assume positive intent
• Show respect and gratitude for all involved
• Ensure all issues are surfaced, assigned to an owner for resolution, and tracked
• Remove obstacles as they arise
• Be transparent with leadership about the status and issues
• Track progress using key metrics
• Use daily huddles to ensure team members are on the same page, focused, and raising issues
• Manage expectations for all involved and impacted
• Document decisions so you don’t have to revisit or rehash them later
• Consider what levers you can pull such as timeline, resources, budget, or scope
• When you can’t change the timeline, be ruthless about scope changes
• Keep calm – reduce team stress, diffuse conflict, and avoid finger pointing

And some tips on what not to do:

• Don’t be a “Monday morning quarterback”
• Don’t think you can turn things around overnight
• Don’t look to blame anyone
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help

If at times you feel that it’s one step forward and two steps backward, focus on why you aren’t making progress and make the necessary adjustments.

A complex project at scale that requires significant efforts from many is stressful any way you slice it. Such a project takes leadership and an effective, high functioning, cohesive team to ensure success. If a troubled project describes your current work, I’d love to hear what dos and don’ts I may have missed.