This article originally appeared in AI, Cybersecurity, IP and the Law: What You Need to Know.

In many companies, IT projects are the driving force behind innovation, productivity and growth.

These projects are often key to streamlining operations, improving customer experiences and supporting organizational goals. However, despite best planning efforts, projects can still encounter roadblocks and veer off-course.

Here, we provide some practical guidance to help bring your IT project back on-track, whether that means a timeline, a budget, a schedule, an objective or a scope change. MLT Aikins offers a project reset and rescue process to help IT projects get back on-track and repair relationships between you and your vendor. We negotiate fair and reasonable sharing of financial impacts and create realistic go-forward plans and agreements. We can also assist with a transition if the vendor relationship is beyond repair.

Evaluate the current situation

To chart a course correction, you must first thoroughly understand where your IT project stands. Evaluate the current situation, identifying specific areas causing delays, cost overruns or other issues. This assessment should be deep and focus on root causes. It may reveal a changing scope, lack of resources, inadequate skills or unexpected technical challenges. Any of these revelations could be to blame for errors, slowdowns or budgetary impacts.

We can help you understand your current legal and contractual position. A strong position can create leverage to encourage the vendor to share the financial and other impacts. Many customers will sign the standard vendor contract based on the vendor's assurances that they will make things right if there are problems. The standard vendor contract often places all the risk on the customer – with the vendor holding all the cards in change request negotiations.

In our experience, vendors will play those cards when the project faces challenges. We encourage you to seek help to understand your contractual position or, ideally, engage MLT Aikins to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract with your chosen vendor in the first place.

Realign project goals and objectives accordingly

Once the project assessment is completed, consider your project's goals and objectives. Remember, a digital transformation of any kind is not a static endeavour. You may need to readjust your objectives to better align with your organization's current needs. External factors

like market changes, customer demands or technology advancements may shift your project's focus. For example, as part of a broader initiative to improve client engagement, you invested time and resources in an enhanced mobile experience but discover most of your clients prefer engaging through your website. In this case, realigning your goals away from the mobile initiative might make sense to save time and resources.

Empower your project team

A capable and motivated team is critical for any IT project's success. The team must have the resources, skills and support to complete the project. Leadership should encourage open communication between team members and management. By fostering a culture of empowerment, team members are more likely to take ownership of their work and contribute their best to the project. If, for example, team members feel they are falling short because deadlines are too tight or they are struggling with a steep learning curve associated with a new technology, this will impact your project negatively. Empower team members by providing additional training, mentorship and resources. This investment in their capabilities will help your project get back on the rails and improve employee satisfaction in the long run.

Empowerment and engagement must also extend to the vendor's project team. Both teams must work together to foster a positive, productive project culture where collaboration and communication are prioritized. This can be created and sustained through effective internal and external governance policies which may have to be revised or reiterated when a project derails.

For example:

  • Internal escalation processes may need to be reviewed to ensure functionality and business decisions are made in a timely manner while your team is getting the support from the executive they need to move the project forward;
  • External governance may need to be reviewed to create the right engagement between you and your vendor. Regular reporting to, and meetings between, your executive and the vendor's executive can help address issues in a timely and positive manner.

Create a realistic timeline

So often, IT projects fall off-track due to an unrealistic timeline. The original timeline may have won the project for an IT vendor, but it can also quickly sideline their efforts. It is important to reevaluate your project timeline and adjust as needed, managing expectations up and down the ladder. Set achievable milestones that account for potential roadblocks or delays. Building in this buffer – and flexibility – will help avoid the frustration and disappointment that often accompanies too ambitious (unrealistic) schedules.

The newly revised timeline must be supported by the project's change order process with future payments contingent on meeting milestones. When resetting a project, establish modest short-term goals and schedule regular check-ins with executives. If modest goals can't be met early on in the reset process, it may be time to start looking in a different direction and, perhaps, for a different vendor.

Re-prioritize task and resources

Not all tasks and resources are created equal on an IT project. To get your project back on-track, make a concerted effort to allocate resources accordingly. Pull effort away from less impactful activities consuming time and energy and re-focus on high-impact tasks. For example, on a digital transformation project, it is crucial to identify the features and functionalities most critical to end users and prioritize work on these components.

Remember that, when reprioritizing the work, it is important to negotiate a change order with the vendor to ensure everyone understands the full impact of the changes from a cost, timing and technology perspective. For example, going from a big bang to a wave implementation will significantly impact integration between systems and workarounds. Your vendor has to be part of the process, as their feedback is critical.

Risk management and contingency planning

Surprises are not uncommon on an IT project. Unforeseen challenges are often the culprit in throwing a project off-track. For this reason, comprehensive risk management and contingency planning are vital. Before project kick-off, identify potential risks, from technical issues to staff challenges and draft contingency plans for each. Review and update these regularly so you are prepared for the unexpected and able to effectively course-correct. When undergoing a reset, the risk management plan requires updating. As you work through the project, you and your vendor learn more about the organization, its business needs and risks.

Implement more formal (agile) project management

For good reason, project management is considered critical for IT projects. Formal project management can offer a flexible, adaptable and iterative framework for progress – breaking projects down into smaller pieces of work with regular checkpoints. This ensures a team can continuously assess progress and make necessary adjustments. It empowers team members to collaborate and adapt to evolving circumstances, making falling off-track (or too far off-track) less likely and facilitates an easy recovery. As part of a reset process, we recommend reviewing project management processes to determine if a change is necessary to bring more discipline to the project. A balance is required between process and speed to completion.

Monitor and report progress

Regular monitoring and reporting on progress is essential to keeping stakeholders informed and engaged. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a meaningful way to track project performance and identify risks early. By developing robust reporting, you can identify areas that require attention, preempting a potential impact on the project and providing stakeholders with real-time insights.

These reporting mechanisms should be included in the agreed-upon change order with the vendor. From assessing the current situation to implementing methodologies and a proactive risk management approach, these strategies can help you bring your IT project back on-track. Adhering to these guidelines ensures your IT project is completed on-time and budget and achieves your organization's goals.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.