NEW! Recovery of Troubled Projects: Agile Strategies, Hybrid Methods and Proven Tools with Prasad Kodukula
What You Will Learn
Upon completion of this training, learners will be able to:
- Create an agile strategy and apply a structured methodology to rapidly assess and recover a troubled project.
- Perform an assessment of a project’s health and identify the root cause of its troubles using various diagnostic tools.
- Apply hybrid methods and proven tools to “stabilize” a troubled project and implement a plan for its successful completion.
Description
The goal of this training is to offer you a strategy, methodology, and tools for recovering troubled projects. The strategy involves selecting the right approach to assess the project’s health, evaluate its worthiness of recovery, and recover it as quickly as possible. Learners will be introduced to a three-step methodology with key activities and tools associated with each step.
Depending upon the size of the project and resources available (among other factors), typically either one person (recovery project manager) or a small team led by a recovery project manager with troubleshooting experience is brought on board to fix a troubled project. They will first assess the project’s health and perform a root cause analysis using various diagnostic tools. A determination is made whether the project can be saved or warrants termination. If it can be saved, a recovery plan is developed. Upon agreement by the key stakeholders, the plan is put into action. The recovery process is closely monitored and controlled until the project is “stabilized.” Once the stabilization criteria are met, the recovery project manager/team exits the project. The project continues its normal life cycle toward presumed successful completion.
Key learnings from this training include: characteristics of successful versus failed projects; a project failure continuum that can be applied to determine the status of a project; rational criteria to decide whether a troubled project should be terminated or recovered; and hybrid methods to resuscitate the troubled project. Learners will receive diagnostic tools for rapid assessment of a troubled project’s health, ranking tools for prioritizing problems and risks, and agile methods for a speedy recovery. In addition, they will learn how to apply a Pareto chart, fishbone diagram, five whys analysis, pairwise comparison, Scrum ceremonies, kanban boards, inch-stone plans, and many more tools.
The training format consists of focused mini lectures coupled with hands-on exercises tied to a case study developed by Harvard Business School. The exercises will include assessing the health of a troubled project, investigating the root cause of issues, developing a recovery plan, rebaselining the project, and putting together inch-stone and milestone plans for stabilizing and recovering the project. The learners in the training group will be divided into small breakout teams, which will be engaged in the interactive case study exercises. Each team will make presentations to the entire group to share their case study results. The training is designed to be highly interactive.
Prework
AGENDA
Day One
- Unit 1: Getting Started
- Welcome and introductory comments
- Housekeeping
- Ground rules
- Introductions
- Training overview and key objectives
- Introduction to Harvard Business School case study and breakout room exercises
- Unit 2: Project Failure Continuum
- Project success versus failure
- Project failure continuum
- Early warning signs and root causes of troubled projects
- Management’s role and responsibilities
- Unit 3: Develop Strategy
- Approach to speedy recovery
- Characteristics of agile strategy
- Assessment team versus recovery team
- Internal team versus external team
- Definitions of “stabilization” and “recovery”
- Recovery project manager and team organizational structure
- Desired characteristics of recovery project manager/team
- Methodology for recovery—three steps
- Key activities associated with each step of the methodology
- Application of hybrid methods for recovery
- Toolkit for recovery
- Case study exercise 1: Getting Ready for Assessment and Recovery
- Unit 4: Assess Project (Start)
- Key processes in project assessment
- Assessment framework
- Assessment plan
- Assessment tools
- Case study exercise 2: Assessment Plan
Day Two
- Unit 4: Assess Project (Finish)
- Interviews
- Review and analysis of key plans, documents, and metrics
- Problems, threats, and opportunities
- Root cause analysis tools
- Ranking tools
- Assessment findings and recommendations
- Case study exercise 3: Project Assessment
- Unit 5: Plan Recovery
- Key activities in recovery planning options
- Priorities and constraints
- Recovery solution
- Rebaselining
- Hybrid methods for recovery
- Milestone plans versus inch-stone plans
- Building and managing inch-stone plans
- Project stabilization objectives
- Exit strategy
- Case study exercise 4: Recovery Plan
- Unit 6: Manage Recovery
- Key activities in recovery management
- Recovery project manager role
- Applying Scrum
- Kanban board
- Implementing inch-stone plan
- Performance metrics
- Indicators of stabilized project
- Preparing for exit
- Final project management plans and baselines
- Recovery closeout
- Preventing projects from getting into troubled status
- Case study exercise 5: Lessons Learned
- Unit 7: Pulling It All Together
- Training summary
- Key lessons learned
- Action plan for future
- Keeping in touch
PDU Allocation Table
| Ways of Working | Power Skills | Business Acumen | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAPM® / PMP® / PgMP® | 0 | 10 | 4 | 14.00 |
| PMI-ACP® / Agile* | 0 | 10 | 4 | 14.00 |
| PMI-SP® | 0 | 10 | 4 | 14.00 |
| PMI-RMP® | 0 | 10 | 4 | 14.00 |
| PfMP® | 0 | 10 | 4 | 14.00 |
| PMI-PBA® | 0 | 10 | 4 | 14.00 |
 |  |  |  |
Instructor(s)
Prasad S. Kodukula DASM, DASSM, PMP, PgMP, PMI Fellow
Dr. Prasad S. Kodukula is a multiple award-winning speaker, coach, author, thought leader, inventor, and entrepreneur with 35+ years of professional experience. He is founder/CEO of Kodukula & Associates, Inc., a project management training, coaching, and consulting company in Chicago, Illinois. A self-proclaimed global ambassador of project management, Prasad has lectured in nearly 50 countries on a variety of topics in project management. He is a highly recognized speaker in PMI circles, having presented at global conferences and various events held by numerous chapters.
Several years ago, he presented two trainings, How to Select the Right Projects and Project Portfolio Management: A Practitioner's Approach for PMI Training and was consistently rated as one of the best among his peers. He was recognized three times by PMI as “Best of the Best in Project Management” with the 2020 Fellow Award, the 2016 Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence Award, and the 2010 Distinguished Contribution Award. He also received prestigious awards from the USEPA and the states of Kansas and Illinois for outstanding achievements in education, training, and technology innovation.
He has trained or coached several thousand project/program/portfolio managers at more than 40 Fortune 100 companies and in every single S&P sector. Examples of major companies where he taught include Abbott Labs, Boeing, BP, Chrysler, Cisco, Corning, Dow Chemical, Ericsson, ExxonMobil, IBM, J.P. Morgan Chase, Medtronic, Motorola, Sprint, Volkswagen, and United Technologies. Prasad taught management classes for the World Bank, the United Nations, and several U.S. government agencies. He teaches project management at the University of Chicago.
Prasad is the co-founder/CEO of NeoChloris Inc., a clean energy company. He is a co-author or contributing author of ten books and nearly 50 technical articles. His books on portfolio management and real options are used in graduate business schools in several countries. He also holds four patents.