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If a project suffers delays, what would be the first step a project manager should do?

No matter what the cause of delays might be

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Question added by Samir Salileh , Project Manager, Riyadh , Formerly @ CIMS Project Management Consultancy-looking new opportunity
Date Posted: 2016/02/20
shyam sundar mahanthi
by shyam sundar mahanthi , project manager , wipro enterprises

1. identify the reason for delay

2. Understand the bottle necks in completing the job

3. Prepare a catch up plan

4. Analyse the impact of time,Cost and Quality based on the catch up plan. 

5. Discuss with management, obtain approvals and implement the revised plan.

Tashfeen Ali Zahid
by Tashfeen Ali Zahid , Engineering Manager , Mezzan Holding

Checking the possible causes of the delay to find root cause is a must. But still project manager can implement the solution if and only if he is sure that project will be back on track. Project manager cannot change a given deadline.

 

If there is a chance that project will not meet the deadline , making any changes are beyond authority of Project Manager and higher management/project board must be informed. Project manager will report the cause and propose the possible solution but he must not take a final decision himself. It will be project board to decide that in which direction project will proceed. 

Mohammed Ajaz
by Mohammed Ajaz , Project Manager , Better Homes LLC

It is quite interesting question, let me try evaluate the situation and answer the question,

 

It seems that proper variance analysis or EVM was not done for this project and no M&C processes was established otherwise PM would already knew that project is going to suffer delay and preventive action would have already taken to bring the project back to schedule baseline.

 

Delay in project is a mistake of project manager and he is directly responsible to fix it.

 

For such situations where project is already delayed, project manager should revisit project management plan and specially check scope, cost, schedule and risk areas, also should check for gold plating or scope creep.

PM should also revisit the process for change management and how the changes are submitted or approved, if no such process is established, PM should established CCB with consultation with Sr. management otherwise he won't be able to control future delays.

After revisiting project plans, PM should reestablish project performance baselines including schedule, cost and scope baselines and submit the change request to CCB.

I feel, cause of delay is poorly developed project management plan otherwise PM would know early about it and would go with preventive action instead of corrective actions.

Most of the time project delayed because of the activities on critical path, so focus more on these activities and use crashing or fast tracking techniques based on the budget.

if CPI is more then 1 or PM received approval to expend management reserves s/he can go with crashing otherwise fast tracking is best choice in this situation.

Once delay is recovered PM should focus more on M&C process and calculate CPI, SPI, VAC and TCPI time to time, these factors will help him avoid any future delay in project. 

 

Hope this answer the question.

Md Fazlur Rahman
by Md Fazlur Rahman , Procurement Specialist , Engineering and Planning Consultants Ltd

If the project suffers delay, take corrective measures through  

    1.   First find out the root cause of delay

2.   Reschedule activities,

3.   Add resources where necessary (manpower, time, money, additional contractors

4.   Monitor that additional resources are in place on time

 

5.   Work is progressing as per revised schedule

Ahmed Khater
by Ahmed Khater , ID& Fit- Out Construction Manager , Harmony Atelier Interior Design& Decoration

first you need to find out the causes of delay and watch it closely to prevent and stop it, then calculate and analyse the impact of delay on cost and project objectives to know your priorities and if you need to assign more fund or resources to maintain schedule and meet objectives, or it will be less costly to shift the timeline. 

Increase the number of manpower and time of work in the delayed section 

Zain ul Abdin
by Zain ul Abdin , Project Planning & Control Manager , Redco International Trading and Contracting

  • Find out the delays on the critical path. Allocate responsibility and ensure that the stakeholder responsible pays for the subsequent steps mentioned below.
  • increase the manpower resources to work for more time using available equipment and plant resources.
  • If there is still risk increase other required resources to achieve the target.
  • If their is still risk then take all stakeholders into confidence to look for other possibilities like crashing the project schedule.

1. Check what provoked that delay

 

2. Check which are the implications of that delay into overall project

 

3. Check if the other available solutions to repair that delay can be implemented

 

4. Make all efforts to "repair" that delay soon as possible

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