Contents of Guide 3: How to Deal with Impossible Projects

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Guide 3: How to Deal with Impossible Projects

What's this Guide about?

The single biggest reason why projects fail is that they were never actually possible in the first place.

Somebody said, 'Here's the project, it has to be done by this date, for this budget with these resources', and everybody just said, 'Ok'.

Impossible projects are a fact of life - sure. But how we deal with them doesn't have to be a fact of life. When we're given impossible projects there are smarter things we can do than just saying, 'Ok'. They're smarter for us as the Project Manager, smarter for our team and smarter for the other project stakeholders on the project.

This Guide tells you what to do when faced with an impossible project. It describes strategies that will enable you to successfully execute such projects to the delight of the stakeholders. If this sounds like a tall order, then read on.

How is the Guide structured?

Section 1 of the Guide defines what an impossible project is and how we would know if we'd been handed one.

Section 2 talks about what to do in these circumstances.

Section 3 lists further survival strategies for dealing with unreasonable stakeholders.

A Reference section at the end of the Guide gives you sources of further information.

Table of Contents

1. Table of Contents
2. Introduction
3. What's this Guide about?
4. How is the Guide structured?
5. How to Properly Recognise an Impossible Project
6. What to do with an Impossible Project
   • The Idea
   • What to do
   • What if that doesn't work?
7. Extreme Survival Skills
   • The Idea
   • What happens if you say 'yes' to an impossible project
   • What to do

What you get:

• This Guide gives you detailed strategies to follow when the project you've been handed is impossible. No matter how difficult the situation you find yourself in, no matter how aggressive the culture of your organisation, no matter how awkward the stakeholders you have to deal with, you should never again end up in a situation where you have committed to a project that is not doable.
• Instead, using the strategies contained in this Guide, you should be able to get wise and durable agreements with project stakeholders.

© Fergus O'Connell 2003