For CEOs and executive sponsors, early intervention is the only defense against high-profile project failures. Many projects become troubled or fail not with a sudden disaster, but through an insidious accumulation of red flags.
Assess Project™ provides the critical diagnostic checklist required to cut through "wishful thinking" and identify these warning signs early, ensuring you accept and address reality before your budget, schedule, quality, and credibility are irrevocably impacted.
The following symptoms are key indicators that your project's health is in decline and immediate corrective action—often requiring "significant surgery"—is mandatory:
| Warning Sign |
Executive Impact & Mandate |
|---|---|
| 1. Missed Commitments Trend | Executive Mandate: If the team consistently misses key milestones and budget targets, past performance dictates future failure. Intervention (reorganizing, scope reduction, leadership change) is required. |
| 2. Fuzzy Outcome & Scope | Strategic Erosion: Business outcomes are non-explicit, and scope lacks quantifiable measures. The team struggles with a 30-second "elevator speech" defining value. Fuzzy scope leads directly to wasted CAPEX/OPEX. |
| 3. Too Many Requirements & Intermediaries | Cost & Rework Driver: Requirements not aligned with the "vital few" business needs bloat project size (50%+ of requirements often go unused). Using intermediaries risks losing requirements in translation. |
| 4. Lack of Fact-Based Plan | Governance Collapse: The plan is constantly changing, based on too many assumptions, or "molded" to unattainable leadership expectations. This creates a house of cards that will eventually collapse. |
| 5. Poor RID Resolution | Paralysis by Analysis: Risks, Issues, and Decisions (RID) pile up without timely resolution. Project meetings that avoid discussing problems are a massive red flag. Inability to decide is a guaranteed cost and schedule adder. |
| 6. No Bad News is Being Reported | Deception & Denial: All projects encounter challenges. If status reports are perpetually green, the project manager is likely delaying or "packaging" bad news to avoid confrontation. Executive oversight must demand unfiltered reality. |
| 7. Poor Leadership & Indifference | Sponsorship Failure: Executives or key stakeholders skip meetings, show indifference, or fail to make timely decisions. A poor or poorly communicated business case is often the root cause of this lack of necessary buy-in and engagement. |
| 8. Excessive Overtime & Low Morale | Talent Erosion: A project requiring excessive overtime leads directly to higher errors, low morale, and inevitable team turnover. Over-grinding the team is a short-term fix with severe long-term costs. |
| 9. High Team Turnover | Productivity Drain: Key resources are leaving due to poor leadership, excessive workload, or unresolved conflict. Onboarding new talent saps the productivity of the remaining team and increases the risk profile exponentially. |
| 10. Too Many Changes | Scope Creep & Instability: Changes without proper vetting and formal process bloat the plan, budget, and schedule. Late-stage changes are an opposing force to stability and quality deployment. |
| 11. Poor Organization | Accountability Vacuum: Poor role definition, multiple project managers, or a lack of accountability create confusion. Inexperienced or weak project managers who refuse to address conflict doom initiatives. |
| 12. Lack of Process Discipline | Systemic Breakdown: Failure to enforce discipline in scope management, vendor management, risk management, and requirements management. If commitments are not in writing, they won't be delivered. |
Executive Action: Do not assume problems will resolve themselves. Recognize, accept, and swiftly deal with trouble. The first step in recovery is demanding an independent assessment to validate the severity of these symptoms and enforce the necessary intervention.
