I'm Back

It's been a while.

I have to take a moment to thank Todd Razor and the folks at the Business Record for allowing me a few months off to address a pressing family medical situation. Now I'm able to reengage in "real life" again. I suspended much of my professional life for five months. It's time to get back into projects, writing and speaking.

Reengaging. Restarting.

We have that same challenge sometimes with our projects. Due to the economy, many projects were suspended indefinitely. Now that things are slowly improving, many project managers are being asked to restart projects. But it's not that easy as this post by Chris Vandersluis demonstrates. Issues like finding experts and contractors (both of whom have gone onto other things, redefining investment and funding issues, as well as additional oversight - both internally and externally - all combine to make the second (or third or fourth) time around harder than the first.

There are also mistakes that can be made when restarting a project. This post by PM Alliance shows six bad assumptions people make when restarting a project:

• It's a fresh start (not really - you just need to find a starting point amid all the old assumptions where everybody is on the same page)
• No research is needed (um... yeah... like the world just stopped while your project was on ice)
• We'll just fit it in with our current workload (this is an add-on to the existing workload, requiring appropriate planning and scheduling)
• Late, later, latest (a restarted project is not a late project; so don't fall into the triple constraint compression. Urgency should not take precedence over common sense)
• Bargain basement blue light special (just because it's a bad economy, don't assume contractors will bow to your desire to save a buck)
• DIY (just because budgets are tight, assuming you can do it yourself in house is dangerous).

These are just a few things that can go wrong when restarting a project. Your project may have been in neutral for a few weeks or a couple of years. Either way, it is imperative that you approach the project with fresh eyes. The goal is still successful accomplishment. Figure out what that looks like, and you'll be good to go.

It's good to be back.

Comments

[Karen Putz]

Welcome back!

[Claire Celsi]

Glad to read your blog post and know that you're back in the swing of things. Awesome post. Real life has speedbumps, doesn't it?