4 Signs to Pull Over and Stop a Project
Have you ever seen the award-winning movie Rush? In it, Austrian Niki Lauda, Formula One
World Champion racing driver, lectured fellow competitor from England, James Hunt, on risk
management. Mr. Lauda states that he manages to a risk factor of 20 percent; any conditions
that produced risk over this factor could lead to a deadly accident. At the last race of the
season, Mr. Lauda pulls over in a rainstorm as he feels there is too much risk. While this
action hands the top prize to Mr. Hunt, Mr. Lauda is unrepentant in his action to pull off
the road. He goes on to win more racing world championships than Mr. Hunt.
Projects are like racecars -- both are complicated and exist in environments where there are
many moving parts. That's why, as with a race, knowing when to put the brakes on a project
will be best in the long-run. Here are four warning signs that you need to pull over:
Accumulated issues with no path to resolution.It is common that during the course of a
project, we capture and determine a path to resolution for issues. This path can sometimes
involve an escalation to a higher level of leadership. However, if the project has incurred
multiple issues where a path to resolution cannot be determined, it has reached a point
where these issues will impair both current and upcoming project activities.
Unstaffed key or multiple roles.We're all challenged to find the right level and skill fit
of resources for our project teams in a timely manner. For some specialized skills, it may
take weeks to find the right kind of resource, which is why many project managers now build
staffing lead time into their project plans. But when a project has either key or multiple
roles unfilled, typically three to four weeks beyond their planned staffing date, it will
start to cause a drag on the project. This drag occurs from tasks that are due to start with
no resources available to do the work.
1 Lack of sponsorship.I have experienced unplanned exits of project sponsors for a variety
of different reasons. I have also experienced project sponsors that are not willing to
sponsor anything about a project. In both of these cases, you need to find a new project
sponsor, fast. Without a sponsor, a project will not have the key decision-maker needed to
guide its long-term course. While the typical remedy is just to keep working on the project,
an unfilled sponsor role is setting your project up for a lack of attention and visibility
within an organization -- and ultimate failure.
2 Unclear or fluctuating success criteria.A project must have a clearly understood set of
success criteria. However, changes in project sponsorship, business conditions and other
internal/external factors can sometimes cause major changes in the success factors of a
project. If any of the success criteria change, it is a good time to pause the project.
Based on the new success criteria, work with the project leadership team to re-plan the
activities, schedule, resources and budget for the project.
We are typically judged by the amount of progress we make as well as the outcomes from our
projects. But we should also be judged on our ability to cease projects when the level of
risk is too high. Although it might seem like a sign of weakness, stopping and re-directing
a project incurring too much risk can reduce the potential overall cost and preserve its
value proposition.
Under what conditions have you had to stop a project due to too much risk?
译文：
四种迹象应暂停项目
你看过《Rush》这部获奖电影吗？电影里，F1世界冠军赛车手，奥地利的尼基·劳达，在风险管理方面
给他的顶级竞争对手，来自英格兰的詹姆斯·亨特上了一课。劳达先生讲述，他掌控着20%这一风险因素
，任何环境因素产生的风险超过这一因素都可能导致死亡事故。在赛季的最后一场比赛，当劳达先生感觉
风险太大时，在暴风雨中他停下了比赛。这一举措将最高奖项拱手让给了亨特先生，但劳达先生对把车停
在路旁的举措并不后悔。后来，他比亨特先生获得了更多的世界冠军。
项目就像赛车一样复杂、周边存在着许多动态因素。同样跟比赛一样，知道何时需要暂停项目从长远角度
来看时是最好的。
下面四种迹象就需要暂停项目。
1．累积的重大问题没有解决途径。
通常，我们在项目进行过程中，能获得并确定对问题的解决途径。这些途径有时候包括将问题上升到更
高领导层面。然而，一旦项目有了很多问题并且无法确定解决途径时，项目就达到了一个点，这些无解的
问题会影响当前跟后续的项目活动。
2．关键或者多个角色人员未到位。 我们都面临着为项目团队及时筹建找到合适水平和技能的资源的挑
战。
对于某些特殊的技能，寻找到合适的资源可能需要几周，这也是为什么现在很多项目经理把员工到位时间
编入到他们的项目计划中。一旦项目的关键角色或者多个角色空缺，一般晚于计划的员工到岗时间3周或
者4周就会开始引起项目的拖延。由于本该开始的任务因为没有资源去实施，这种拖延就发生了。
3．缺少发起人。 我经历过发起人由于各种原因突然退出的项目，我也经历过项目发起人不愿再赞助项
目的情形，这两种情形下，你需要快速地找到新的项目发起人。没有发起人，项目就没有了关键决策者引
导项目向长远发展。典型的补救措施是依旧保持在项目上工作，发起人角色的缺失将引发组织缺少对项目
的关注。
4．不明确的或者变化着的成功标准。 项目的成功标准必须被清楚地理解，然而，有时，项目发起人的
变化、商业环境的变化、其他内部/外部因素的变化会引起项目成功因素的重大变化。如果成功标准的任
何一项发生变化，都是暂停项目的好时机。基于新的成功标准，与项目领导者团队重新制定一份关于项目
活动、进度、资源、预算的新计划。
就像评价项目成果一样，评价我们项目经理通常根据取得的项目进展程度，与此同时，当项目面临高风险
，能够适时停止项目的能力也应被评判。尽管这项能力看起来像个弱点，但停止一个将会引起太多风险的
项目，并且重新调整项目的方向，可以减少潜在的总体成本，保留项目其有价值的提议。
你曾经在什么情况下，因为项目风险太大而停止了项目呢？
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