只需四個步驟就可以拯救問題項目

Dear Annie: A colleague with a twisted sense of humor sent me your recent column about bouncing back from a big, visible failure, because I've just been put in charge of a project that everyone here thinks is probably doomed. Here's what happened: A team of 12 has been trying for the past nine months or so to launch an internal capability that we have not had up to now. It would save us a ton of money if we can get it to work, but it has turned out to be more complicated than anyone expected, and senior management is so frustrated by the various problems and delays that my boss expects me to cut our losses by chucking the whole thing and starting over with a different team.

親愛的安妮： 有位有着變態幽默感的同事發給我一篇您的專欄文章，講的是怎樣從重大的、引人關注的失敗中走出來。因爲我最近剛剛接手了一個項目，可公司裏的同事都認爲這個項目註定要失敗。事情是這樣的：過去九個月裏，一個12人的團隊一直在嘗試推動內部能力建設，但到目前爲止都沒有成功。如果我們成功，可以爲公司節省大量資金，但實際情況的複雜程度超出了所有人的想象，各種問題和延遲令高層震怒。我的上司希望我能推翻之前的工作，重新組建一支團隊從頭再來，進而減少損失。

However, it seems to me that this thing is fixable, if we can just stop all the finger-pointing and concentrate on making a few essential changes. But I don't really have much experience with this kind of situation. Can you or your readers recommend a good source of practical guidance on how to save a project that has gone off track? -- Glass Half Full

然而，我認爲事情仍然有挽回的可能，只要我們能停止相互指責，把精力用來作出一些關鍵的改變。可在應對這種情況方面，我確實沒有太多經驗。我該如何拯救這個脫軌的項目？您和您的讀者能推薦一些實用的指導嗎？——G.H.F.

Dear G.H.F.: One place to start would be a highly readable book called Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure. Author Todd C. Williams, head of eCameron, a consulting firm based near Portland, Ore., has spent the past 25 years advising Fortune 500 companies on what to do about projects that are either headed for a cliff or have already gone over.

親愛的G.H.F.： 首先，我要推薦一本值得一讀的好書《拯救問題項目——識別、預防、重啓失敗項目完全指導手冊》（Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure）。這本書的作者託德?C?威廉姆斯是俄勒岡州波特蘭市諮詢公司eCameron的負責人。他花了25年時間爲《財富》美國500強公司（Fortune 500）提供諮詢服務，解決如何應對正在走向失敗、或已經失敗的項目。

Sometimes he recommends scrapping them, but not always. "Deciding whether to go forward depends partly on how much the company has already sunk into it, and whether getting the project back on track can eventually make up the losses, " Williams says. "But the main question is one of strategy. How important is this project to the company's strategic goals? If the capability you're trying to build is critical, the project is worth fixing."

有時候他會建議徹底放棄，但並不總是如此。威廉姆斯說：“方向的決定很大程度上取決於公司在項目中陷入的程度，以及將項目帶回正軌最終能否彌補損失。而最主要的問題是策略。項目對公司的戰略目標有多重要？如果你們正在努力建設的能力至關重要，那麼這個項目就有拯救的價值。”

Let's say that the potential cost savings you mention are significant enough that it makes financial sense to persevere. Williams recommends these four steps to turning your project around:

假如你所提到的節省成本潛力非常巨大，而且堅持做下去能在財務層面帶來積極意義，那麼，請看威廉姆斯在下面給出的拯救這個項目的四個步驟：

1. Stop the blame game. "The finger-pointing stage is usually when I get called in, " says Williams. "But with any failure, a lot of the responsibility really belongs with senior management, for not providing clear direction, or not monitoring the project closely enough, or both. Once we point that out, bosses are more willing to shift the discussion away from assigning blame and on to finding solutions" -- which leads to Step No. 2.

1. 停止相互指責。威廉姆斯說：“等到需要我介入的時候，相關項目往往都已經處於相互指責的階段。而實際上，任何失敗的主要責任都在高層管理者身上，因爲他們沒能提供明確的方向，或者沒有對項目進行密切的監督，也可能兩者皆有。一旦我們指出問題所在，老闆們會更願意停止問責，而將精力轉移到尋找解決方案上”——這就需要進入下面的步驟2。

2. Focus on the facts. "Real data are your best friend right now, " Williams says. "Dig deep into the details of exactly what went wrong at each stage, and why." Getting to the bottom of each failure point "is like peeling an onion. You need to work down to the center. Suppose, for instance, a critical component arrived late. Why? How can that be prevented in the future?"

2. 關注事實。威廉姆斯說：“真實數據是你當前最靠得住的朋友。深入挖掘每個階段的問題所在和原因。”尋找每一個失敗點的問題根源，“就像剝洋蔥一樣，需要抓住核心。比如，假設一個關鍵組成部分未能準時出現。原因何在？未來又該如何預防？”

He adds that it's important not to be swayed by any opinion or assumption that can't be verified. "Often people say to us, 'When you do your audit of this project, here's what you'll find the problem was, '" Williams says. "My answer is, 'Let me do the audit first and we'll see.' Anytime something has gone wrong, there's a tendency to jump to conclusions -- which often is what started the trouble in the first place.

他補充說，重要的是，不要受到任何無法驗證的觀點或假設的影響。他說：“人們通常會說：‘你們在爲項目進行審計時，從這裏能發現問題。’我對這個問題的回答是：‘讓我先做審計，然後再說。’每當出現問題的時候，人們總是傾向於迅速得出結論——而這本身往往便是一種麻煩。”

3. Keep the same team. If you decide to change the whole direction of the project, you might need to enlist people with different skills. But if the strategic goal is the same as before, "don't fire anyone. Just work with them," Williams suggests. He notes that this may seem counterintuitive, because management -- your boss, for one -- "often doesn't see how you can get different results with the same people. But in most cases, you need to change what the team is doing, not who's doing it."

3. 保留原班人馬。如果你決定徹底改變項目的方向，可能的確需要招募具有不同技能的人。但如果項目的戰略目標不變，威廉姆斯建議，“不要動任何人。繼續跟他們合作。”他表示，這麼做似乎有些違反直覺，因爲管理層，比如你的上司，“通常看不到一樣的人馬怎麼能夠幹出不一樣的結果。但在大多數情況下，你需要改變的是團隊在做什麼，而不是團隊本身。”

Williams says he's seen many projects flounder because they're understaffed in critical areas, or because a project manager "overestimated what could be done all at once. The scope of your project may need to be better defined, so that you reach your goal in stages, rather than trying to run before you can crawl."

威廉姆斯表示，他見過許多項目陷入困境，因爲他們在關鍵領域的人手不足，或者因爲項目經理“高估了一次就能完成的目標。你或許要對項目範圍進行更準確的定義，以便按階段實現項目目標，而不是連爬都不會就想跑。”

4. Communicate clearly and often. As the project leader, Williams says, "you need to make sure everyone understands what they're building and why, and get everyone moving in the same direction." That might sound obvious, but a frequent cause of failure is "well-meaning individuals who get so wrapped up in their own part of the work that they make decisions affecting the whole project, without checking with the rest of the team first." Especially in the early stages of a turnaround, you may have to be a bit more of a micromanager than you'd like, just to ensure that doesn't happen.

4. 經常進行清晰的溝通。威廉姆斯建議，作爲項目負責人， “你需要保證所有人瞭解他們正在做的工作和爲什麼要做，讓所有人朝同一個方向努力。”這一點聽起來淺顯易懂，然而許多項目失敗的常見原因是“出於好心的人過於專注自己那部分工作，他們所做的決定並沒有首先與團隊其他人溝通，結果導致整個項目受到影響。”尤其是在轉變的初期，你可能更需要做一位微觀管理着，避免這樣的事情發生。

One further thought: Take a hard look at whatever technology you're using. Does it serve the project's goals, rather than the other way around? "For a project design to work, it has to be built around strategy, then people, then process, then technology," Williams says. "It has to be in that order. Putting the technology first will just get you into trouble a whole lot faster and more efficiently." Good luck.

另外一條建議：留神你所採用的技術，不管用的是什麼技術。看看這項技術到底是在爲項目目標服務，還是產生了相反的效果？威廉姆斯說：“一個項目設計要想成功，必須以策略爲核心，然後是人，繼而是流程，最後是技術。必須按照這個順序。將技術放在首位只會讓你更快陷入麻煩之中。”祝你好運。