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Search and Rescue
The Survival Guideto
Identifying and Recovering
Lost Projects
Copyright 2003 - 2013
Prodevia Learning, Inc.
All rights reserved.
TM
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Table ofContents
1
Table of Contents
How to Complete this Course ................................................................................. 3 How to Complete the Guide and Exercises..............................................................................................3
How to Contact the Instructor ...................................................................................................................3 How to Submit Course Completion and Report PDUs ............................................................................. 3
Completion Checklist ................................................................................................................................4
Course Objectives ...................................................................................................5 Chapter 1 – Introduction to Project Search and Rescue ..........................................7
Have You Ever Been Lost? ......................................................................................................................7 Project Search and Rescue Is a Critical Skill ...........................................................................................8 Defining ‘The Lost Project’........................................................................................................................8 Review Questions..................................................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being Lost............................................................... 11 Stress and Stressors ..............................................................................................................................11 The Cycle of Behavior ............................................................................................................................12
Confusion ...........................................................................................................................................12
Fear ....................................................................................................................................................14 A Sense of Urgency..............................................................................................................................1
Panic................................................................................................................................................... 15
Poor Decision Making ........................................................................................................................15
Frustration ..........................................................................................................................................16
Anger ..................................................................................................................................................16 Depression and Withdrawal ...............................................................................................................16 Fatigue................................................................................................................................................ 16
Forgetfulness ...................................................................................................................................... 17 The Interdependency of Lost Behavior...................................................................................................17 The Behaviors of Survivors.....................................................................................................................17
The STOP Method..................................................................................................................................18
A Presence of Leadership ......................................................................................................................18
Review Questions...................................................................................................................................20
Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost Projects .................................................................. 21
Preparing to Search for Lost Projects.....................................................................................................21
Planning for the Search ..........................................................................................................................21
Planning a PSAR Review...................................................................................................................21
Defining a List of Projects to Review.................................................................................................. 22 Initiating Conversation with the Project Manager ...................................................................................23
Interviewing Project Participants.............................................................................................................24
Participant’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists ......................................................................25 Participant’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and Budget Objectives.........................................25 Participant’s Understanding of Project Risk .......................................................................................27 Participant’s View of Project Progress ...............................................................................................27 Participant Behaviors and Responses ...............................................................................................30 Words and Phases to Listen For ........................................................................................................33 Looking for Consistent Themes by Project Participants.....................................................................34
Interviewing Project Managers ............................................................................................................... 34
Project Manager’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists.............................................................36 Project Manager’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and Budget Objectives ...............................36 Project Manager’s Understanding of Project Risk..............................................................................37
Project Manager’s View of Project Progress......................................................................................38 Project Manager’s Behaviors and Responses ...................................................................................41 Words and Phrases to Listen For.......................................................................................................44
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Table ofContents
Reviewing Project Processes ................................................................................................................. 45 Project Charter Review ......................................................................................................................45
Scope Review..................................................................................................................................... 45 Schedule Review................................................................................................................................45 Budget Review ................................................................................................................................... 46 Risk Plan Review.................................................................................................................................. 1
Issue Review ......................................................................................................................................46 Change Review ..................................................................................................................................46
Closing the Interview ..............................................................................................................................46
Review Questions...................................................................................................................................47
Chapter 4 – Evaluating Project Review Results.................................................... 49
Common Themes from PSAR Interviews...............................................................................................49
Inconsistencies between the Responses of Project Participants ...........................................................49 Inconsistencies between Project Participant Responses and Project Manager Responses .................49
An Interviewee’s Response That Was Unique to the Responses of Other Interviewees.......................50
Positive Findings.....................................................................................................................................50 Preparing a PSAR Discovery Report......................................................................................................50
Executive Summary............................................................................................................................ 50
Assessment ........................................................................................................................................50 Findings ..............................................................................................................................................51
Sharing the Report.................................................................................................................................. 51 Review Questions...................................................................................................................................53
Chapter 5 – Rescuing Lost Projects .......................................................................55
Planning the PSAR Rescue & Recovery Effort ......................................................................................55
Defining and Documenting Objectives ...................................................................................................55 Evaluating Risk and Current Issues ....................................................................................................... 55 Clarifying Scope...................................................................................................................................... 56
Considering Time and Cost ....................................................................................................................56
Developing a Communication Plan for the Project .................................................................................56
Creating a Steering Committee ..............................................................................................................57 Establishing Regular Project Reviews....................................................................................................57
Key Considerations for the PSAR Team Engaged in Rescue & Recovery Efforts ................................57 Review Questions...................................................................................................................................59
Chapter 6 – Recognizing if You are Lost................................................................61 The STOP Method Revisited ..................................................................................................................61
1. Stop ................................................................................................................................................61 2. Think ............................................................................................................................................... 62 3. Observe..........................................................................................................................................62 4. Plan ................................................................................................................................................63
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................................65
Review Questions...................................................................................................................................65
PSAR Crossword Puzzle....................................................................................... 66
Tools .................................................................................................................... 68
High-Level Work Breakdown Structure for PSAR Review .....................................................................68
Project Participant Interview Outline.......................................................................................................69 Suggested Answer Key ......................................................................................... 80
Chapter 1 – Introduction to Project Search and Rescue....................................................................80 Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being Lost .......................................................................................... 80 Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost Projects............................................................................................... 81
Chapter 4 – Evaluating Project Review Results................................................................................. 84 Chapter 5 – Rescuing Lost Projects................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 6 – Recognizing if You Are Lost ........................................................................................... 86
Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 88
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How to Completethis Course
Completion Checklist
Chapter 1 – Introduction to the Project Search and Rescue
Reading
Review Questions
Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being Lost
Reading
Review Questions
Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost Projects
Reading
Review Questions
Chapter 4 – Evaluating Review Results
Reading
Review Questions
Chapter 5 – Rescuing Lost Projects
Reading
Review Questions
Chapter 6 – Recognizing If You Are Lost
Reading
Review Questions
PSAR Crossword Puzzle
Tools
Review Tools
Course Completion
Submit completion to Prodevia Learning and earn 5 credit hours toward your ProfessionalProject Executive (PPE) certification
Submit 5 PDUs to the Project Management Institute
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Course Objectives
5
Course Objectives
By the end of this curriculum the student will be able to:
⇒ Describe what a lost project is and why it is important to uncover lost projects within the
organization.
⇒ Explain the behaviors of humans who find themselves lost as well as understand the behaviors oflost individuals who tend to survive.
⇒ Discuss the parallels between individuals lost in the wilderness and individuals lost on projectefforts.
⇒ List the signs of a lost project.
⇒ Define the necessary components of successfully rescuing lost projects and putting them back onthe right path.
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Student Notes
Chapter 1Introduction
7
There are many striking parallels
between how people behave when
lost in the wilderness and how people
behave when lost on project efforts.
Chapter 1 – Introduction to Project
Search and Rescue
Have You Ever Been Lost?
The experience of being lost can be a daunting one. Consider anexperience that you may have had in your lifetime where you have
physically found yourself lost. Perhaps you remember being separated
from your parents as a small child. Perhaps you were driving in a car
without a sense of where you were. Or, maybe you found yourself lost
while hiking along a mountain path.
What feelings did you experience? How did being lost affect your
judgment or your ability to make thoughtful decisions? How were you or
others able to ‘find’ you again? Consider these questions for a moment
and make some notes for yourself.
This course attempts to analyze the behaviors of lost individuals and
apply this understanding to the project environment. Amazingly, there
are lessons to learn from individuals who find themselves lost in the
wilderness which can be applied to individuals who find themselves lost
within the complexities of projects no longer on the right path.
Because there are many striking parallels between how people behave
when they are lost in the woods and how people behave when they are
lost in their projects, the common body of knowledge around wilderness
Search and Rescue efforts can help both the project manager on the
project that has become lost as well as the rescue team charged with the
recovery of lost project efforts.
This course will begin by exploring
the common body of knowledge
surrounding Search and Rescue
teams attempting to find individuals
lost in the wilderness. We will
uncover the common stages of
emotions and behaviors of those
who have become lost, and we will
discuss the behaviors of those who
survive through the experience of being lost. We will define what a lostproject is. We will outline the parallels between lost individual behavior
and lost projects. We will also review a set of guidelines to assist a
Project Search and Rescue (PSAR) team charged with searching for lost
projects, and we will discuss recommendations for project rescue efforts.
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Student Notes
Chapter 1Introduction
8
Project Search and Rescue Is a Critical Skill
It is essential in today’s complex project environments that we learn to
identify projects and teams that have become lost. In competitive
environments where budgets are tight and time-to-market is often the
difference between project success and failure, it is important to ensure
that projects are staying on the path to completion, and that this path is
the one that will bring the organization a successful solution.
Many organizations face the challenge of determining which project
efforts are staying the course and which ones are not. All projects can
be susceptible to becoming lost, and most organizations cannot afford
for this to happen. Even the most experienced project member can
become disoriented as to the direction of project work. Just as a person
lost in the forest may panic, a project member who gets ‘lost’ in the
wilderness of a complex project is susceptible to panic as well. This
panic can lead a project even farther off of the path.Perhaps the biggest challenge to the recovery effort is the fact that those
in lost projects are often afraid of being found. People who are lost in
the woods generally want to be found – though they are often very
apologetic to the rescuers. On the other hand, people on lost projects
often do not want to be ‘discovered’ lost. Just as lost hikers may feel
foolish when rescued, professional project managers and team members
may also find themselves overly conscious of appearing incompetent to
peers or clients. Although it is a critical project survival skill, this aversion
to signaling for help causes many projects that are on the edge of the
wilderness to walk right off of the marked trails and into the unknown.
The work of putting lost projects back on the path is a challenging but
fulfilling one. It is critical to the long-term health of an organization that
lost projects are recognized and rescued.
Defining ‘The Lost Project’
This course defines a lost project as an initiative that has a lack of
strategic direction or that has become stuck in a vicious cycle that keeps
it from achieving its objectives. This is more than projects that may have
experienced schedule slips or budget overruns. Lost projects are
composed of leadership and teams who have no method for recovering
from trouble, or they may not even recognize that they are in trouble.
Some lost projects are easier to detect than others. In your own
organization, you may be aware of where it has become obvious that
there are projects without direction or that seem to be ‘stuck’ in a pattern
of achieving nothing. These projects have the advantage of easy
discovery; they can begin the recovery process right away. But, there
are other projects that can be out of view. No one is aware of these
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Student Notes
Chapter 1Introduction
9
A lost project is an initiative that has
a lack of strategic direction or that has
become stuck in a vicious cycle that
keeps it from achieving its objectives.
projects being lost. For these projects, the route to rescue is much more
treacherous.
Undiscovered lost projects become a drain on an organization’s
resources and often create opportunity costs – those solutions that can
never be realized because resources are being expended in lost projectefforts.
Lost projects can occur due to a variety of factors. Organizational
politics, ambiguous objectives, lack of planning and the human factor all
can play a role in a project becoming lost. All of these will be discussed
more in depth as you move through this course.
The search for lost projects and lost
project teams begins with a study of
lost behavior. The behaviors that
are discussed within the next
section of this course will be thestarting point through the maze of
uncertainty for lost projects.
Review Questions
The following review questions will assist you in developing
comprehension of the material contained in this course introduction.
Answer the following questions in a separate notebook.
1. Define a lost project.
2. Why is recovering lost projects a critical skill set?
3. Why is it that lost projects can be difficult to find?
4. What advantage do easily discovered lost projects have that
hidden lost projects do not have?
5. How do lost projects create an opportunity cost for the
organization?
6. What are some of the factors that can create lost projects?
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors of
Being Lost
Chapter 2 – The Behaviors of Being
Lost
Before we can begin to show the parallels between a lost hiker andthe lost project team member, it is important to understand the
Search and Rescue common body of knowledge around the human
psychology of being lost. These parallels will be discussed later in
this course; however, you are encouraged to make notes in the
margins of this text as comparative themes occur to you between
hikers lost in the wilderness and project stakeholders lost on
projects.
Stress and Stressors
The analysis of lost behavior begins with a discussion of stress and
stressors. Webster defines stress as a state of bodily or mental
tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent
equilibrium. In common language, stress is a feeling we experience
when an unfamiliar situation or condition, a stressor , is placed upon
us.
Stress has many
advantages for the
individual. Stress forces
an individual to become
more aware of his
environment and
stimulates him to work ina more thoughtful
manner. However, too
much stress – or too
many stressors placed
upon a person – can create a negative type of stress that we
commonly refer to as distress. In this more destructive form of
stress, individuals can find themselves less able to think clearly and
more likely to make mistakes.
It is common for soldiers to be put through stress training to help
them learn how they will react to stressors and to resulting stress.
The military understands that hard-skill training alone will not save a
soldier when he is confronted with challenges in a military exercise.
A soldier’s well-being will also be drastically influenced by his ability
to understand his stress, and more specifically, how particular
stressors will cause him to act constructively toward his survival or
destructively to his peril.
Stress?Or
Distress?S t resso r
S t r e s s o r
S t r e s s o r
S tressor
S t r e
s s o r
S t r e
s s o r
Stress?Or
Distress?S t resso r
S t r e s s o r
S t r e s s o r
S tressor
S t r e
s s o r
S t r e
s s o r
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors ofBeing Lost
The initial sensation of being
physically lost is referred to
as spatial disorientation.
Most individuals have not had the benefit of stress training. And, this
becomes evident when those individuals who would venture into a
forest or wilderness environment find themselves lost without an
understanding of how stressors can influence their ability to think and
work rationally. There is a common set of emotions and behaviorsthat lost individuals will typically display, and in many cases, they will
not understand what is happening to them until it is too late.
Stressors when lost in the wilderness can include a number of things
such as weather and climate, terrain, wild animals, darkness, lack of
experience, limited resources, physical health (or lack thereof), and
mental state. When too many of these factors are added together to
create a situation of distress, then the resulting emotional state of
lost persons can snowball.
Question for your consideration: What behaviors to you think that
a lost person would display? Make a few notes in the Student Notes
margin before moving on in your reading of this section. Compare
your notes with the behaviors that are discussed next.
The Cycle of Behavior
Individuals experience a range of thoughts and behaviors when
confronted with a situation where they are lost. Interestingly, these
behaviors can occur in a linear order, or they can cycle through a lostindividual many times. Understanding this common set of behaviors
is the first step to understanding how human beings think and
behave when in a lost situation where stressors are placed upon
them.
Confusion
The initial sensation of being physically lost is referred to as spatial
disorientation . In actuality, most people operate everyday in some
state of disorientation. The reason for this is simple. A person’s
environment is much too complex for him to fully comprehend.
Because this is the case, people build simpler mental models of their
physical location. These models are
generally relational in nature. This can
be demonstrated by asking a person
to precisely locate his position on a
map. Most individuals will not be able
to successfully do this because his
manner of moving from one place to
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors of
Being Lost
Bending the map
to explain reality
is not based in reality
at all.
another is relational. Even a trip from home to work has some
amount of ambiguity for the average person. If someone finds
himself off of a common route, he may have difficulty in positioning
himself on a map once lost.
This can be demonstrated further by thinking back to a time whenyou have written down a phone number on a note card that later was
misplaced. Your mental model tells you that the note card was
colored red. You begin to search for that phone number based on
the model that you should be searching for a red piece of paper.
When one cannot be found, you search with greater ambition to find
a red piece of paper. You search the same places many times.
Then, someone else finds the phone number in a location you had
searched many times already. The note card was actually colored
blue. But, because your model of reality said red, you didn’t consider
that the model was faulty.
How many times have you searched only to find that a lost item was
right in front of you? The reason why you could not locate the item
was not because it was not there but because your model of what
you were looking for was incorrect. Our ability to build these mental
models saves humans time and energy, but it also has a price tag –
susceptibility to spatial disorientation. It should be a red flag to each
of us when we begin to believe that our model is more real than the
reality in front of us.
Hikers lost in the wilderness who become spatially disoriented begin
to rationalize things that are deviant to a plan of survival. Spatial
disorientation often begins as a sense of things not being quite right.Though the realization of being lost may not yet be present, there is
a feeling that something is amiss.
For example, the lost hiker beginning to experience the effects of
spatial disorientation will begin to rationalize that the landmark that
‘should’ be there (i.e. rock formation or creek) has changed
somehow. “I’m in the right spot,” a hiker will tell himself. “It’s the rock
that has moved (or the creek dried up – whatever the case)”.
This is a concept that is often referred to as bending the map. By
this it is meant that people begin to
explain situations that don’t conform to
their mental model, and that these
explanations are illogical with reality.
Clearly, a rock cannot move on its own.
However, a person who is allowing
spatial disorientation to affect his
judgment will bend the map by illogically
arguing why his mental model is reality.
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors ofBeing Lost
Fear is a necessary survival
mechanism.
In the latter stages of spatial disorientation, lost individuals can begin
to experience the feelings of vertigo and can even become physically
ill from the experience. Later in this course, we will apply the
concept of spatial disorientation to project stakeholders.
Question for your consideration: Have you ever found yourself
‘bending the map’? Jot down your personal experience of bending
the map in the Student Notes margin before moving on in your
reading of this section.
Fear
Fear is a necessary survival mechanism. Fear causes human
beings to consider the dangers of their environment. It can also
serve to aid an individual in making more mistakes as anxiety sets in. Anxiety is the result of a person’s inability to logically think through
fear. There are many situations - fear
stressors - that may play a part in
creating anxiety for the lost hiker.
Common fears that will often be
experienced by the lost hiker who has
not been able to find his way include
the following items:
⇒ Fear of being alone. Human beings are social creaturesand often do not think clearly when faced with the fear
stressor of isolation. Unfamiliar surroundings serve to
escalate this fear of being alone. This feeling is further
aggravated by the uncertainty of when surroundings will
again become familiar. Again, individuals who are lost in the
woods alone run the risk of allowing this fear to cause
greater levels of panic and poor decision making.
⇒ Fear of darkness. For those lost hikers who have foundthemselves lost at night, the intensity of fear increases.
Darkness represents a lack of control over the environment.
Without the advantage of vision, hikers will often feel both
more exposed and less in control of the situation. This riskstressor can place additional anxiety on a lost individual.
⇒ Fear of animals. Strange sounds and rustling noises withinthe landscape of the terrain become much more of a
stressor on a hiker when he experiences the sensation of
being lost. These fears tend to escalate, and human beings
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors of
Being Lost
The behavior of hurrying
to find the right place
often results in a hiker
becoming even farther off
of the path.
lost in the wilderness will revert to an instinctual fear of
possible predators.
⇒ Fear of suffering. Most lost individuals faced with theuncertainty of when they will be ‘found’ again will become
increasingly concerned with their ability to hold their own and
not suffer the physical problems of thirst, hunger, heat &
cold, injury, fatigue, or other impacts of resource limitations.
⇒ Fear of dying. The fear of suffering usually leads to theadded fear of dying. Individuals lost in the woods who face
the anticipation of death will often begin to consider those
things in their life left undone, who will take care of their
family, and what will people say.
A Sense of Urgency
As fears begin to create more stress on anindividual, he may begin to experience full
distress. The usual outcome of these
stressors of confusion and fear is the dire
urge to push onward. As the hiker can no
longer deny that he is completely lost there
is a growing sense of urgency to find his
destination. Interestingly enough, the
behavior intended to save the hiker from
being lost will be his undoing. The behavior of ‘hurrying to find the
right place’ often results in the hiker becoming even farther off of the
right path.
Panic
At this stage of emotion, a hiker can begin to rationalize near
anything. “It’s just over that next ridge”, he’ll repeat with growing
delirium. Critical details are re-evaluated and deemed less important
or are overlooked entirely. As panic takes its toll on the mind, the
capacity for making thoughtful decisions diminishes greatly. The
number of assumptions begins to build, while risk evaluation and risk
mitigation is all but abandoned. This ‘denial of risks’ is a consistent
behavior that most lost people exhibit.
Poor Decision Making
Panic leads lost individuals to make poor decisions. Without a point
of reference for where they are and with the stressors of fear
creating panic, individuals will ignore obvious flaws of judgment and
make decisions that will be to the detriment of survival.
There are many cases of hikers who were lost in the woods and
continued to make decisions that were clearly not in their best
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors ofBeing Lost
Attempting to continue to use a
mental model as the correct gauge oflocation will serve to make the
environment less familiar.
interest. For example, failure to make a shelter or fire, failure to stay
put, discarding critical equipment and clothing, and failure to signal
when spotting search aircraft are behaviors of individuals who have
panicked. To the outside observer, these things would obviously
seem irrational. To the lost individual, rational thought is difficult tomaintain.
Believe it or not, remains of people have been found who died of
dehydration – yet they still had water in their canteen. This is
evidence of the fact that people do not think clearly nor do they make
sound decisions when in a mode of panic.
Frustration
The lack of results that occurs
from poor decision-making will
soon grow into a feeling of
frustration. In searching againand again to find the right path
back to a known point, hikers
will begin to experience
increasing frustration.
Attempting to continue to use
their mental model as the correct gauge of location will serve to
make the environment less familiar. A lost hiker who has continued
bending the map of reality will find himself in a situation where the
entire landscape is strange and landmarks are completely unfamiliar.
If frustration is allowed to continue unchecked it will often lead to
anger.
Anger
Anger, an escalation of the feelings of frustration, can encourage
impulsive reactions, further irrational behavior, poorly thought-out
decision-making and in some instances, it will cause an individual to
give up.
Depression and Withdrawal
Depression and withdrawal often follow when anger has not created
a successful solution to the problem of being lost. Once a person
has reached anger and continued to experience additionalfrustrations, the cycle of anger and frustration will lead to depression
which is quickly followed by withdrawal.
Fatigue
The emotions of frustration, anger, and depression usually create
fatigue in most lost individuals. The dangers associated with fatigue
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors of
Being Lost
People who are lost often
survive not because of a
particular skill-set or
access to tools, but rather
because of their state of
mind.
are significant. A fatigued individual will be
even less capable of maintaining himself
until rescue arrives.
Forgetfulness
Many times, all of these behaviors
culminate in forgetfulness. It is not
unusual in rescue cases that the lost
individual cannot remember the decisions
that were made while lost, nor can they
remember the events that occurred while
being lost. Forgetfulness is the sign that
all of the other emotions have taken their
toll on the lost individual.
The Interdependency of Lost Behavior
Each of these stages build, layered one on top of the other. For the
person who is not aware of how these emotions are playing a part on
his ability to survive, these feelings will continue to compound and
escalate creating a dangerous situation for the lost individual.
Question for your consideration: What relationships can you see
between lost person behavior and the behaviors of team members
lost on projects? Make a few notes in the Student Notes margin
before moving on in your reading of this section.
The Behaviors of Survivors
Now that we have considered the typical behaviors of lost
individuals, it is important to consider what behaviors allow
individuals who are lost in the wilderness to survive and either find
their way to a known location or to be rescued by a Search and
Rescue team. What the Search and Rescue common body of
knowledge tells us about survivors is this:
People who are lost in the wilderness oftensurvive not because of a particular skill-set
or access to tools, but rather because of
their state of mind.
Though skill set is an important component
to survival, having the tools alone is not
enough. Individuals who survive lost
situations seem to rely on a simple doctrine
Depression and Withdrawal
Anger
Forgetfulness
Fatigue
Frustration
Poor Decision Making
Panic
A Sense of Urgency
Fear
Confusion
The Cycle of Lost Behavior
Depression and Withdrawal
Anger
Forgetfulness
Fatigue
Frustration
Poor Decision Making
Panic
A Sense of Urgency
Fear
Confusion
The Cycle of Lost Behavior
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors of
Being Lost
injured not only bonds the group together, but it also keeps the team
focused on the purpose – survival.
Shelter becomes the next critical component of survival. Shelter is
the safety net for keeping the members of a lost group healthy.
Fire is also an important component of survival. For most individuals
lost in the wilderness, fire represents more than just light and
warmth. It also represents some amount of control over the
environment. This is especially important to the mental stability of
the lost person.
The ability to signal for help is the next component of survival
mechanisms. It keeps the team focused on the goal, to be rescued.
The resources of water and food are last to be considered. By
performing the STOP method, lost groups are able to better utilize
scarce resources instead of wasting them and succumbing to the
emotional stages discussed earlier.
Question for your consideration: What relationships can you see
between the behavior of survivors and the behaviors of team
members who survive on lost project efforts? Make a few notes in
the Student Notes margin before moving on in your reading.
The information in this section serves to establish groundwork for the
student as this course begins the work of uncovering lost project
efforts within an organization as the precursor for rescuing them.
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Student Notes
Chapter 2The Behaviors ofBeing Lost
Review Questions
The following review questions will assist you in developing
comprehension of the material contained in this course chapter.
Answer the following questions in a separate notebook.
1. Define stress and stressors.
2. Describe the difference between stress and distress.
3. What are some of the common cycles of behavior of lost
individuals?
4. What are the common fears
5. of lost individuals when lost in the wilderness?
6. What are some of the common behaviors of survivors?
7. Define the STOP method.
8. Why is leadership important for lost individuals?
9. What is the seven-point checklist suggested for leaders of lost
teams?
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Chapter 3Discovering Lost
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21
Thoughtful planning is
critical to a successful
PSAR effort.
Chapter 3 – Discovering Lost
Projects
A s discussed earlier during the introduction to this course, lostprojects can be difficult to find within an organization. For the Project
Search and Rescue (PSAR) team charged with finding lost projects
within an organization, the best place to begin is often by talking to
the people engaged in the work – project managers, team members,
and other stakeholders – who find themselves tied to delivering a
solution. In this section, we will begin searching for lost project
efforts.
Preparing to Search for Lost Projects
Project Search and Rescue teams are established for many reasons.
For example, a project management office may be charged with
auditing an organization’s projects as part of an overall portfolio
status report to the organization’s leadership. Other teams who were
originally brought together to evaluate the maturity of project
management processes used in an organization may often find
themselves uncovering projects in trouble, and thus begin to
concentrate on discovering initiatives that are lost. Whatever the
reason, PSAR teams provide a critical
function to a project organization, and
planning thoughtfully to engage in this
discovery work is important. It is
important, however, that the PSAR team
membership can be considered objective
participants of the review and recovery
process.
Planning for the Search
PSAR teams must take the time to plan just as competent Search
and Rescue teams must plan before executing a search for a lost
person or group. Unlike the Search and Rescue team who seeks to
find a lost hiker, PSAR teams are often not aware of specifically
those project initiatives that are lost. Because this is the case,
planning for PSAR teams is crucial.
Planning a PSAR Review
A PSAR team needs to take the time to build a project plan for the
PSAR review effort. This project plan should include a project
charter identifying the reason for undertaking the effort and the high-
level expectation for objectives and scope. Scope can be further
clarified through a work breakdown structure effort. Scheduling and
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Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects
22
communications planning should also be of prime importance for this
effort. Additionally, the PSAR team may also want to consider the
risks, especially political risks, which may be experienced as a result
of this effort.
A high-level work breakdown structure for the PSAR Review effort(Template X.1) is included in the Tools section of this guide. This
work breakdown structure can be modified by a PSAR team to
accommodate most review efforts.
A PSAR team will need to determine project approach. For example,
will multiple review efforts be underway concurrently, or will one
project review occur at a time? This will often be determined based
on the number of reviewer resources that are available to conduct
the effort as well as the time and cost implications of running
concurrent project reviews. Whatever approach is taken, it is
important that the PSAR team document this approach through the
project charter or similar documentation.
Defining a List of Projects to Review
Defining a list of projects for review is a critical one. For
organizations that have an enterprise solution where project status is
objectively driven from a software tool, this can be a good place to
begin. Projects that demonstrate over-runs, significant scope creep,
and/or schedule slippages can be a good place to begin.
However, for organizations where status reports are provided
through a more manual process of written status, these reports of a
project are not always the best judge of lost projects. For example,project managers and teams who recognize that they are lost, but
who for reasons of pride or fear do not signal that they are lost, will
often dress up a status report such that it does not always accurately
reflect the condition of the project. Additionally, those on projects
who are lost may not even recognize that their initiatives are lost. If
you will remember from the last section, lost individuals who
experience a state of confusion or spatial disorientation will not know
enough to recognize that they are lost and that they should signal for
rescue. In similar fashion, lost project members will often not
recognize that they should signal through status reporting.
A list of lost projects can begin to be developed by looking for theobvious signs of trouble. This could include projects who are
regularly seeking project variances, projects who are regularly going
back to the client to obtain more funding, projects who have
continually slipped initial milestones as well as revision dates to
those milestones, and projects where unmanaged scope creep has
occurred.
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Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects
24
Have you discussed with
project participants why
the PSAR Review is being
conducted?
Interviewing Project Partic ipants
The interviews of project participants, members of the project team
who either are responsible for components of work and/or who are
physically completing the work, will be the first and perhaps the most
significant toward identifying lost projects. It is not necessary that
every project participant be interviewed; however, a sampling of
participants from various areas of the total project scope can be most
beneficial in gaining a project-wide perspective. These interviews
should ideally be conducted one-on-one. The information obtained
from the interview should be anonymous for the purposes of the
PSAR report to prepared later. Inform participants that their
information will be kept confidential and their names will not
specifically be attached to comments or information provided by the
interview. This can be an important component of participants being
willing to discuss the project in more detail.
It is extremely important to begin each interview by discussing with
the participant the objectives of the PSAR Review and why it is being
undertaken. It is important to address that their involvement in the
PSAR Review is an opportunity for them to suggest improvements
as well as to discuss any observations that they would like to
contribute about the project and its staff. This interview is much
more than the opportunity to gain information from a participant. It
provides the opportunity of looking into the project from his or her
perspective.
A PSAR interviewer should be sensitive to the fact that the
participant’s involvement in this interview can sometimes beuncomfortable for him. He may view the interview as an intrusion of
his team and the project work. During this interviewing process it is
important for the PSAR team to work respectfully with project
participants understanding that often the PSAR Review will be seen
as a negative and not a positive. The most effective way to gain the
cooperation of project teams is to deal with them in an open, honest,
and respectful manner – always. A lack of honesty by a PSAR team
can foster a project team’s willingness to stay lost as a method of
ensuring failure of the PSAR effort. The PSAR team should be an
advocate for the project team.
While interviewing, the PSAR interviewers
will want to pay attention to the answers to
questions they ask not only from the
standpoint of content but also from the
standpoint of attitudes and behaviors. In
particular, the PSAR team should look for
behaviors consistent with those discussed
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Chapter 3Discovering Lost
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25
in the previous section of lost person behavior. This will be
discussed in more depth below. A Project Participant Interview
Outline is provided for you in the Tools section of this course,
Template X.2, and is discussed fully below.
Participant’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists
For those individuals that will be interviewed, it is insightful to ask
what is their understanding of the strategic implications of the
solution their project provides. Some individuals will not know an
answer for this question. Others will have one. It is important for
PSAR interviewers to look for consistency between the participants’
answers and the documented reason for the project.
Many times, a participant’s failure to understand the reasons why a
project has been undertaken leads to an inability to make a
connection between the tactical elements of providing deliverables
and the strategic impact of those deliverables on the receivingorganization.
PSAR interviewers who find that the project participants do not know,
do not understand, or who holds an inconsistent view of the project
vision should consider this a sign that the project may be lost.
However, this is not always the case. It will be important to look at
the project participant’s understanding of the strategic implications of
the project combined with the components discussed next.
Participant’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and
Budget Objectives
Project participants should be asked about the current objectives
around scope, schedule and budget. Do they have an
understanding of the expectations for these items, and further, do
they have an understanding of why these objectives are what they
are?
For example, if a client has mandated an end date for the solution,
do the project participants understand the need for this date? Is
there, generally speaking, a recognition of why any constraints on
objectives exist as they do? This is important because, just as hikers
need reference points in order to find their way using a map, project
participants must understand the reference points of the project’smap, or project plan. Project participants who either do not know
what project objectives are who do not have a good understanding of
why constraints on these objectives exist may not have a clear
understanding of goals, or reference points of the project map.
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Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects
26
Are the project
participants suffering
from means-ends
inversion?
It can also be useful to ask project participants if they believe that the
objectives are achievable. Objectives that are aggressive is one
matter, however, objectives that participants believe to be unrealistic
should be noted. The PSAR interview should query further to
uncover why the participant believes the objectives to be eitherachievable or not.
PSAR interviewers should also ask more specifically about the scope
that is being provided within the project. In particular, the PSAR
team should pay particular attention to the discussion of deliverables
versus activities.
Deliverables, as defined within this course,
are the end results of actions.
Deliverables are the tangible components
of a project and the representations of
project scope. These components may be
internal to the project effort, such as a
signed requirements document, or parts of
the final customer solution, such as
hardware. Activities are the actions that
must be taken by the team to achieve these deliverables. A
participant focus that is more toward activities and less toward
deliverables may be an indication that scope is not clarified for the
participant. This focus on activities over deliverables is often
referred to as means-ends inversion. Means-ends inversion is an
indication that project team is at risk of not understanding the course
of the project, the project map.
PSAR interviewers should query these project participants further to
ascertain whether or not the scope of work is clearly understood by
participants. The absence of scope statements, work breakdown
structure or other such scope decomposition tools, and project
schedules which do not hold milestones representing deliverables
are suggestions that scope may not be clearly represented by the
plan and known by the participants. Further, it may also indicate that
the project participants have no point of reference of the project map.
Project schedules should always support the development of
deliverables; project schedules that do not show the achievement of
deliverables is reason to suspect that a project and team is in dangerof being lost.
Not all project participants are privy to the budget components of a
project, however, for those who are it is important to ask if they
understand the budget, how it was arrived at, and do they believe
that the budget is achievable. Participants who were made a part of
the development of budget estimates - hours and/or dollars – should
be able to discuss how those estimates were generated and why. If
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Chapter 3Discovering Lost
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27
Remember the distinction between risk and
issues – project participants might not
recognize the difference.
there seems to be no formula for how estimates were generated, it
could also be a sign that the project’s participants are lost related to
project objectives.
Participant’s Understanding o f Project Risk
A project participant’s understanding of the project’s risk holds
particular importance for a PSAR interviewer. Does the participant
understand the risks present? Have those risks been communicated
and documented? Are there mitigations in place to correct risks
above a standard threshold of risk tolerance, and are the project
participants regularly reviewing risk plans for changes and updates?
When asked about risk, some participants may begin to discuss
project issues, or current problems that the project is experiencing.
These issues represented risks, or potential problems, that may have
not been dealt with previously. A PSAR interviewer will want to pay
attention to the items that the participants bring up regarding projectissues. Project issues are discussed in more detail on page 41.
A participant’s lack of
understanding regarding
project risk as well as his
lack of engagement toward
risk planning could be an
indication that the project
and its participants are
either lost or in danger of
being lost.
Participant’s View of Project Progress
Adherence to the project plan
PSAR interviewers should query participants about how well the
actual work is adhering to the project plan. Participants who are
either unwilling to discuss project progress or who suggest that the
project is off the path of the plan should be questioned further for
more information. Included in information that the PSAR interviewer
will want to look for are changes occurring on the project, current
issues that the project is experiencing, updates to the plan, the
environment and health of the project team, and the impact that theorganization or other project work has on this project.
Project changes
Change is both a regular and challenging occurrence on project
initiatives. The existence of change itself does not create a lost
project; however, change not managed well is disorienting, causing a
greater risk for a project to become lost.
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Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects
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Project participants often have a unique view of project change. For
them, change is often seen as a negative, and there is limited or no
focus on the benefits a change provides for the client and for the
business. This must be considered when interviewing participants
about change since many will hold negative views of changeregardless of the benefits to the business organization.
When discussing project change, the PSAR interviewer should ask
the project participant what his views are of the changes that are
currently happening on a project. But, these views alone are not
enough information to ascertain whether or not the project is
troubled. Further questions are required.
Are changes being managed diligently through a process of change
control? Are changes being added into the project without any
supporting documentation? Are changes jeopardizing the
participant’s and team’s ability to deliver the originally agreed to
solution for the time and cost objectives that have been set forth?
Have revised objectives been agreed to by the client organization
and the project manager regarding creating revised benchmarks of
project success given new changes that have been implemented?
Project participants may have little understanding of the business
advantages of change, however, they generally have a first-hand
and realistic view of the impacts of changes upon the progress of the
solution and its ability to be successful.
Project issues
For those participants who have not already brought up the topic ofproject issues during the discussion of risk, it will be important that
the PSAR interviewer specifically request information about the
current issues the project is experiencing.
The PSAR interviewer should consider not only the issues that the
participant discusses during the interview but also the attitudes and
experiences regarding the discussed issues.
Do the participants believe that the current project issues can be
addressed? What process does the project team use to document
and manage issues? Is the process working? Do project
participants believe that the current issues are a threat to the overall
success of the project objectives?
Where an abundance of issues exist and where no process is being
used to address them, the PSAR interviewer should see this as an
indication that the project team is lost.
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Chapter 3Discovering Lost
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29
How do the team members feel about the
influences of the larger organization on
the project effort?
Project plan updates
A participant’s view of updates to the plan provides much information
to the PSAR team. A participant who believes that the plan is not
being managed effectively or who is not aware of how the project
plan is being updated as needed may be an indication of seriousproblems regarding the health of a project.
In particular, a participant should be asked questions about how
actual work information is logged. For example, does the participant
provide information regarding the work that is completed as well as
provide additional information regarding the work required to
complete the deliverable as an update to the original estimate for
that deliverable? Was the participant provided with a method to
provide actual data to the project manager? Does the project
manager regularly initiate conversations regarding updates to the
risk plan, issues register, project schedule, budget, or other
components of the project plan?
A participant who indicates that there is an absence of regular
interactions with the project manager regarding progress could
indicate a project of lost participants.
Health of the pro ject environment
A project participant often has a very accurate view of the
environment of the project. In particular, he is often aware of
challenges among team members or between departments that
those team members may represent. A PSAR interviewer should
ask participants about how the project team works together. Doesthe participant believe that members of the team share a common
goal of what is to be achieved? Does the participant believe that the
team membership is respectful to one another? Does the participant
feel that the working relationships between members are positive?
Some participants may be unwilling to discuss these matters in detail
as it might be considered against the morays of the group. A PSAR
interviewer should be sensitive to this and respect those participants
who are unwilling to discuss matters that they feel could jeopardize
working relationships with other team members.
However, for those team
members who are willing to
discuss troubles that the
project membership may be
experiencing, it can be
useful information for a
PSAR team.
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Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects
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The influence of the larger organization
Participants often have a terrific perspective of the political influences
of the larger organization or other project efforts on the project in
question. Many will be able to articulate very well the challenges that
the ‘wilderness’ of the organization brings to the effort. Withoutleading the topics of conversation here, a PSAR interviewer should
ask participants if they see any challenges the project is
experiencing due to factors outside the work of the project team. For
example, perhaps there are other projects concurrently running that
are competing for time from the same project resources. Or,
perhaps there is a recent change of leadership in the organization
that is creating unique challenges for the team.
A PSAR interviewer should note the challenges that are brought up
as well as ask participants their thoughts on solutions for those
challenges. Participants should be encouraged to share any
suggestions they have which could assist projects in running more
smoothly.
Participant Behaviors and Responses
During the PSAR interview, the interviewer will receive much
information from the participants. This information will not be content
only. Participants will have feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that will
add context to the content they provide in the interview. The
interviewer should be aware of these throughout the entire interview
and note them.
The information discussed in the previous section suggestedbehaviors common to individuals lost in the wilderness. These same
behaviors will be present within participants who do find themselves
lost on project efforts.
Confusion
Does the participant show a sense of confusion over the details of
the project or his role in it? Does the participant seem confused
about the reasons why the project is being undertaken or the goals
of the project? Does the participant seem to be disoriented such that
he cannot quickly respond to questions presented by the PSAR
interviewer?
Frustration
Is there a general sense of frustration as the participant discusses
project status, issues, risk and progress toward objectives?
A Sense of Urgency
Does the participant have a sense that there is not enough time to
suspend work for the PSAR Review? Is there a general sense that
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Chapter 3Discovering Lost
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31
Fear may keep project participants from
presenting project information. A PSAR
interviewer should watch for signs of fear.
the participant feels the need to hurry to ‘get the project back on the
path’?
Fear
Does the participant seem
nervous or scared of
discussing some details
and not others? Or, does
the participant refuse to
give more in-depth
answers? If the participant
does answer openly, does he also express a fear regarding the
project effort? Earlier in this course, we discussed specific fears that
individuals lost in the wilderness experience. The parallels for lost
project participants are striking. Consider the following list of fears
below and understand that these fears may play a role in how
forthcoming a project participant will be.
⇒ Fear of being alone. The project participant may havefears that he is alone in his feelings of being lost, or the
participant may feel that the project is ‘abandoned or
isolated’ within the organization.
⇒ Fear of darkness. The project participant feels a lack ofcontrol over the environment in which he works. This lack of
control creates a fear suggesting that the effort is lost.
⇒ Fear of animals. The project participant fears predatory
team members as well as individuals outside the project
team.
⇒ Fear of suffering. The project participant fears that he orshe will be blamed for a lost effort or that his career will be
negatively impacted.
⇒ Fear of dying. The project participant fears that he or shewill lose a job.
Panic
Are there signs that the participant is panicked about the project
effort? Does the participant justify the progress of the project
through assumptions that seem risky or without the use of thoughtful
judgment? Does the participant expressly state that the team is
panicked about the condition of the project?
A project participant who is in a state of panic will have a very difficult
time hiding this emotion from a PSAR interviewer. A PSAR
interviewer will see many of the earlier behaviors of confusion,
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Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects
32
frustration, a sense of urgency, and fear expressed in a panicked
individual.
Anger
Participants may show anger toward the PSAR interviewer. This by
itself does not suggest that the participant is angry about the
condition of the project. Instead, the PSAR interviewer should look
for signs of anger from the participant regarding decisions made
within the project, the status or progress of the project, or the
environment that is impacting the project. Does the participant seem
angry as he is queried about the condition of the project effort?
It is important to differentiate anger regarding the project and anger
resulting from the interview. Look for participant interactions where
anger is present in some answers and not in others. For example, a
participant who shows a calm demeanor when discussing one topic
may display signs of anger when asked about another project topic. A PSAR interviewer should note anger when shown and the topic
that initiated the anger.
In some cases, the angry participant will refuse to cooperate in the
PSAR interview. The PSAR interviewer should move through the list
of questions as politely and respectfully as possible and note the
participant’s unwillingness to interact.
Poor Decision Making
Does the participant express concern about poor decision making in
the project? Does he articulate the poor decisions of others and the
impact of those decisions on the project? Does the participantsuggest that he has been encouraged to undertake activities that he
believed to be poor decisions? Why did he believe these decisions
to be poor?
Fatigue
Does the participant seem to be fatigued when queried about the
project? Does the participant indicate that he is tired of the effort and
that it is draining his ability to be productive?
Depression and w ithdrawal
Does the participant seem to be apathetic to the PSAR Review? Isthere a sense that the project participant has resigned himself to the
current condition of the project effort?
Forgetfulness
Is the participant unable to articulate how decisions on the project
were arrived at? Is the participant able to explain a path of situations
and decisions that have led the team to this point on the project
effort? Does the participant seem to struggle with remembering
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Chapter 3Discovering LostProjects
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PLEASE NOTE: You will find
common elements in this
section of the course,
Interviewing Project Managers,
and the previous course section,
Interviewing Project Participants.
However – read carefully as the
interview with the project
manager also contains unique
differences from the interviews
conducted with project
participants.
Looking for Consistent Themes by Project Participants
The comments of one participant alone may not indicate a lost
initiative; however, consistent themes stated by many participants
can demonstrate that the project is off course.
A PSAR interviewer will need to look for consistent themes when
interviewing participants. These themes can be utilized in querying
the project manager as well as reviewing the project with the PSAR
team.
Summary of Interviewing Project Participants
1 Participant’s Understanding of Why the Project Exists
2 Participant’s Understanding of Scope, Schedule, and Budget Objectives
3 Participant’s Understanding of Project Risk
4 Participant’s View of Project Progress
5 Participant Behaviors and Responses
6 Words and Phases to Listen For
7 Looking for Consistent Themes by Project Participants
Interviewing Project Managers
The interview with the project
manager assists the PSAR team in
better understanding the leadership
that exists within a project team. The
analysis of the project manager’s
responses to questions helps a
PSAR team not only understand
whether or not the initiative is lost but
also whether or not the leadership
exists to bring the effort back on track
if it is lost.
The PSAR interviewer should take a
moment when beginning the
interview to discuss the objectives of
the interview as well as general
themes that were shared by
participants. It is not advisable to
share specific comments by specific
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roject Search and Rescue
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Student Notes
Chapter 3Discovering Lost
Projects
35
The interview with the project manager
serves to establish whether or not the
leadership exists to bring a project back
on the path if it is determined it is lost.
Can the project manager present
documentation that details the
business objectives of the project?
individuals as it is likely to
create a possible tangent to
the agenda. Instead, any
inquiries to specific project
participant comments shouldbe responded to simply by
stating that more specific
information will be given later.
Remind the project manager
that he or she will be provided with a copy of the final report and that
nothing will be held from him or her. The reason behind waiting to
provide information in its totality is that the results will have more
value when considered as a whole, and offering up information in
piecemeal will have less value to the project manager who is
attempting to bring a lost effort back on the path to completion
Again, it is important to remind the project manager that the PSARteam is an advocate for the project effort and the project team.
Discuss with the project manager that the input he provides will
assist the PSAR team in better understanding the current initiative
and its challenges, if there are any.
In some cases, a project manager may be unwilling to discuss some
or all of the items addressed below. A PSAR interviewer should be
open and respectful during the entire interview and remind the
project manager of the positive benefits of the PSAR Review for him
and for his project. A project manager who is continually unwilling to
cooperate in a PSAR effort is a sign that the project effort could be
lost. Project managers are held to a different level of accountability
than project participants, and the PSAR team should be aware of
project managers who would withhold information as a way to save
themselves over saving the project effort.
There will be project managers who will see the interview as an
opportunity to be heard. They may have already been attempting to
escalate, or signal, that the project was troubled without the signal
being recognized by those who were higher up in the organization.
Project managers who are more interested in the solution being
successful and less concerned about how they will be viewed by the
organization will be moreforthcoming of information.
Although these project
managers