Failing Project - unsure what to do.....and out of my depth

[Mephisto]

Treat it as your deep end learning curve thingy - my first was similar, plonked in at 11th hour no commercial experience and still a temp.

However got my head around the various facets, translated the big words into layman's and delivered most of what was required.

If you pull it off (not in the office, fnaar) then it will bode you well in the future hopefully

[TheSurfer]

The key job of a PM is to "Descope".

No project will possibly get done on time if the business users have a free reign.

Your 3 prorities are therefore

1 Descope
2 Descope
3 Descope

So true! The best (well, maybe the only) PM book I read was 'The Lazy Project Manager'....... it's in the Kindle Store. He's big on nailing any scope creep.

[v8gaz]

Of course the one thing to remember throughout all of this is that the project will be a big success on your CV.

[Peter Loew]

Great advice on this thread. This is going to be one of your most useful experiences.

- identify key deliverables, which will involve de-scoping the project to meet the deadline
- get formal feedback on the deliverables and delivery time from your lead devs / techs / architect teams and minute the meeting
- update the project plan and PID / scope doc / bullet list and send it out to your above tech leads and ensure they agree
- once they agree inform your sponsor / manager that the whole team is behind you and this is the new deliverable set for the given deadline. If they don't respond or don't care, then put something in your email like, "we will be proceeding with this unless you highlight any objection in the next couple of days", putting the onus on them and not waiting for their explicit approval, which will never happen
- given the above is a bit crafty, after a few hours of sending the email, arrange a project team meeting with your managers / sponsor and put it in the diary and reference your email- if they turn up, great, if they don't bat an eye, you're still covered
- inform your key users about the new plan / scope and manage their expectations about what's getting delivered
- ensure you have bi-weekly or regular project team meetings to track your new plan
- set up weekly project team meetings with your managers and sponsor and give them the highlights

Key to all this is to ensure you're covered as much as possible, and that you have your team with you, and that they're signed up to the plan and scope.

Good luck.

P