Project troubleshooting

Large long-term projects with many stakeholders involve risks and events that are, in principle, unpredictable. And given the impracticality of pre-planning for every possible contingency, it is better for managers to confront inevitable disruptions as each occurs, subsequently responding to unexpected events, updating risk management plans, re-scoping the project, and problem-solving as needed. Despite this knowledge, senior management continues to view project management as a deterministic process: They continue to believe that risk can be anticipated and projects executed as planned. This journal article discusses project management as a pragmatic process requiring a practical balance between proactive risk management and reactive problem-solving. The author focuses on Tiger Teams as an effective problem-solving tool for improving disrupted projects and helping troubled high-performance teams.