2009 PMI International Project Management Day

This year in view of the generous support received by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) the International Project Management (IPM) Day was free of charge to UK members.

The theme for this year’s event was project failure and recovery. Amongst the leading experts presenting on this subject, Geoff Vincent, CITI Principal Consultant, discussed ‘Finding out what went wrong: the forensic approach’.

Finding out what went wrong: the forensic approach
Geoff Vincent, Principal Consultant 

When things go wrong, the search immediately begins for the guilty. The simplest solution is always to blame the project manager. Sometimes this is right, but often the situation is more complex, and a number of factors – from governance and poor initiation to problems with underlying processes – may have contributed to the problem.

Forensic pathology, popularised by TV shows such as CSI and Silent Witness, uses scientific tests to determine key facts about what happened. Are there any similar ‘scientific’ tests that can be applied to a project (‘alive’ or ‘dead’)? What recommendations can be made to rescue a project, or to prevent the same problems from occurring again?

Geoff’s session also looked at how forensic analysis can help to create not just a healthy project, but a healthy project environment, where projects are set up and managed in ways that are most likely to lead to success.