Sudden death

This article belongs to a series about Project Risk Management, with special focus on the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences on Projects. If you want to start from the beginning, here is the main question: will your project survive the pandemic?

No, I'm not talking about tragic outcomes of the COVID-19 illness affecting project resources. With all due gravity, that topic is better treated just like an extreme case of the generic, increased risk of illness (here).

The risk

I am referring to a possible decision by senior management to suddenly stop the project. This could be a portfolio-level decision, aimed at preserving the chances of success for other projects with a higher priority, and you - as the project manager - might not have a say in it.

How bad is it?

The good news here are that you can play an active role in influencing such a decision (and the probability of the risk), as well as its impact.

What to do about it?

Dig deep into the scope of your project, and focus on all the goals that deliver significant value for the organization. This way, you should attempt to identify a way to deliver that value, or part of it, in an alternative way.

One way would be to define a set of partial results (a Minimum Viable Product, in agile terms) that could be achieved before coming to a complete halt. If your project is given just enough time and resources to achieve those, all the sunk costs are not wasted and some value will be created.

Another way would be to present a convincing recovery plan, to be executed once the emergency is over. This would probably require an orderly closure of current activities, and you would have to negotiate it: the clearer the promise to deliver value, and the better your contingency plan to deliver it for good, the higher the chances for your project to be first in line when opportunity knocks.

Last but not least, the goals (or part of them) might be reached with reduced resources, or by accepting a longer duration of the activities - or both things. Again, the better the quality of your planning, the higher your chances.

This article belongs to a series about Project Risk Management, with special focus on the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences on Project Management. Start here, with the main question: will your project survive the pandemic?