Project Rescue

Project Rescue stabilises a stalled project and brings it back on track. The initiative is taken over at short notice, a neutral audit is produced, and the project is realigned towards a deliverable goal. In crisis mode, speed beats elegance: the acute deterioration is stopped first, before lasting recovery begins.

Typical starting points

  • an IT project is acutely at risk and budget, timeline or quality are tipping over at the same time: a neutral audit separates symptoms from causes and orders the risks on the basis of facts
  • a go-live is wobbling or an escalated service-provider conflict is blocking progress: stabilisation reduces scope to the critical features, secures the architecture and restores release capability
  • a neutral situation report for the next decision is missing: the audit report and the 100-day recovery plan deliver the finding, the recovery path and the handover dossier

Project Rescue is a crisis engagement with a handover goal, not permanent operations. The engagement does not fit when the project is under strain but not acutely at risk; in that case ongoing leadership or a strengthening of delivery capability is enough.

Outcomes

First comes the ability to decide: a neutral finding on causes and risks that holds up in front of the client, executive management or the customer, and a clear statement on whether and under which conditions the initiative remains deliverable. The concrete artefacts produced are:

  • an audit report with a neutral finding
  • a stabilised project with restored release capability
  • the 100-day recovery plan
  • a handover dossier

Stakeholders work again on a shared basis of facts, and after the handover responsibility sits cleanly in-house.

Scope of work

The engagement follows a fixed rhythm, from the neutral finding to the orderly handover.

timeline
    accTitle: 100-day recovery plan
    accDescr: The engagement runs in four phases: neutral audit, stabilisation, recovery path and orderly handover with post-mortem.
    title 100-day recovery plan
    Day 1 to 10 : Neutral audit : causes not symptoms
    Day 10 to 30 : Stabilisation : release capability back
    Day 30 to 80 : Recovery path : milestones week by week
    Day 80 to 100 : Handover : internal leadership, post-mortem

Neutral audit A neutral deep dive into code, infrastructure, delivery process and team dynamics names the causes on the basis of facts. Symptoms are separated from causes; what really blocks the project becomes visible. The finding is neutral, regardless of whether an internal error, a service-provider conflict or an architecture decision sits behind it.

Stabilisation The acute deterioration is stopped and the team regains a reliable cadence:

  • reduction to the absolutely critical features
  • securing of the architecture
  • restoration of release capability

100-day recovery plan The audit turns into a resilient recovery path that separates the necessary from the desirable:

  • clear milestones and responsibilities
  • a realistic target picture
  • progress that is verifiable week by week

Handover As soon as the initiative holds again, the orderly handover follows to internal leadership or to an interim lead. The insights are captured in a post-mortem, so that the crisis does not repeat itself.

Scope boundaries

Project Rescue is a time-boxed crisis engagement with a handover goal. The subsequent, lasting leadership of a complex initiative is delivered by Interim Program and Project Management. The sustainable build-up of delivery and quality capability in a healthy team is handled by Delivery Engineering.

Key data

The effort depends on the size and situation of the initiative:

  • how many people and systems are affected
  • how far the project is from its goal
  • how quickly a viable state needs to be reached

A tightly scoped situation is stabilised quickly, a large initiative with many people involved demands more. What the rescue costs in a concrete case depends on exactly these factors. The price range gives the frame for your own situation.

Request pricing

Further information