Program / Project Recovery
Navigate to Recovery
Today’s business competition requires fast, successful execution. For organizations to realize the value of their transformations, they cannot delay in addressing issues that prevent progress like:
- Repeated missed deadlines or budget overruns
- Loss of stakeholder confidence or executive sponsorship
- Lack of clarity on scope, goals, or success criteria
- High team turnover or vendor performance issues
- Persistent misalignment between business and delivery teams
Achieving the Right Outcome
- Pilot & Rutter delivers the leadership and structure required to restore control and drive results. We use our neutral and objective assessment as a basis to rebuild trust, establish priorities, and reposition troubled initiatives for successful delivery – with speed, precision, and transparency.
- Successful recovery starts with reestablishing and prioritizing communication so all parties align on current state, needed outcomes, and rationale. Pilot & Rutter helps you build and execute communication cadences so stakeholders and team members receive the timely inputs they need to move quickly and efficiently.
- At Pilot & Rutter, we have decades of experience on both sides of the business and delivery divide, allowing us to help you bridge the gap and get both sides speaking the same language, and working collaboratively as a high-performing initiative.
Client Success
Organization: Footwear and apparel company
CHALLENGE: The company confidentially developed a new enterprise application for merchandisers who rejected the application upon release. The $20M budget was overrun, team overworked to the point of exhaustion, and credibility and trust between all players evaporated.
SOLUTION: We quickly conducted interviews with stakeholders, end users, and the engineering team to determine functional gaps. Through a partnership with merchandising leadership, we were able to prioritize focused UX research in the gap areas and redesign for right fit. Design changes were immediately validated with stakeholders to rebuild credibility in the approach. The application development leads worked directly with business stakeholders to iteratively align functional approaches and re-build trust and communication. Weekly updates were distributed to all stakeholders and team members, with impromptu collaboration sessions when impediments affected scope, budget, or timeline. The least trusting stakeholders and business leaders were included in alpha testing for early buy-in and championship of the application.
RESULT: A pilot application was launched successfully in time for seasonal deliverables across their geographically dispersed users. Merchandisers lauded the new functionality claiming “the application works the way they think”. The Product Owner of the application had redirected purpose and the business stakeholders gained lasting understanding of agile delivery, prioritization, and influence of end-user expectations.
Delivery Model
Engagement Overview
- The Rapid Assessment phase begins with independent health assessments gathered from stakeholder and team member interviews, together with a current-state documentation review. Working with leadership and the team, a root cause analysis of failure points and readiness assessment is performed. We also kickoff constant communication, specifically focused on re-engaging stakeholders and team members.
- Immediate triage of critical issues (scope, budget, timeline, quality) begins the Stabilization phase. Based on triage results, we work with stakeholders and teams to realign project objectives, priorities and governance structures. We guide the team through immediate risk mitigation and present a recovery roadmap with actionable recommendations.
- With embedded program/project recovery leadership, we execute the Turnaround phase, using Stakeholder re-engagement and communication as the central focal point. Recommendations for PMO augmentation are delivered and revised project controls are implemented. Change and performance management is coached as needed.
- The final phase is focused on sustainable Delivery and Transition by implementing dynamic progress tracking and KPI dashboards. We work with your leaders and teams to complete knowledge transfers and offer ongoing advisory or interim leadership support, as needed. All lessons learned and prevention planning is captured in leave-behind documentation.
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