Oscar Wilde wrote, “Questions are never indiscreet; answers sometimes are.” This to say, when it comes to project recovery, nothing is sacred. I use a diagnostic question set as a basis for gathering information from team members and stakeholders. Just like a doctor uses questions to determine a physical diagnosis, I use these questions to determine what is ailing your project.

In the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), managing stakeholder expectations is one of the central issues explored. “The desired outcome is stakeholders who have realistic expectations of the product and project and support the project team’s approach to the project.” This is quite an ambitious goal given that stakeholders are so diverse and differ so widely in their expectations of a project. How do you manage and align them to create an optimal environment for your project’s growth and completion?

Suppose that you are having surgery; there is a risk that you’ll have trouble with anesthesia. It is possible that you could develop a clot, infection, or post-op pneumonia. Your surgeon has to prepare for these risks. But what if you should suffer a stroke during surgery (which is relatively rare)? Or your liver function is impaired (which is also uncommon)? Your doctor also has to be aware of these risks and have a plan to combat them in the operating room. Your organization needs to be an expertly trained surgeon, identifying both obvious and the less obvious risks and developing strategies to deal with them.

When you purchase a home, you consider how it affects your spouse; your children; the neighbors you’re leaving and the ones you’re going to be joining; the brother-in-law who will be sleeping on your couch; the bank through which you obtain your mortgage; the contractor who fixes the roof that will leak as soon as you close. All of these people are stakeholders; the key ones are those who have a big say, a lot of influence, or will be impacted in a major way, such as your spouse. In a business project environment, stakeholders are those who will be affected, directly or indirectly, by the project. Who are the key players? And what must they agree on to ensure a project has an optimal chance at success?

Identifying Key Stakeholders

When you throw a rock into a pond, it creates a ripple effect. When you throw a bigger rock, it creates a bigger ripple. Those ripples are the stakeholders; as your organization or project grows, it will affect more people, and identifying them becomes critical – and difficult! Again, think about who will be affected, directly – the IT Director who will be instrumental in implementing software upgrades – or indirectly – such as a branch customer service representative (CSR) who will be dealing with the end customer and who will see, use and benefit from the operating with the upgraded software.

You can’t take your eyes off a train wreck; this was the case with a high profile technology ’provider infamous failed ERP project, which cost $160 million (more than five times the project’s originally estimated cost) when the dust settled. Gilles Bouchard, then-CIO of HP’s global operations, said, “We had a series of small problems, none of which individually would have been too much to handle. But together they created the perfect storm.” “Small problems” can plague any project; a sound project governance structure can help keep them from becoming that perfect multi-million dollar storm.