Are you taking over a project that's already in motion?
Ugh, it may even feel really daunting
because you're taking over someone else's project,
but I'm going to give you all the steps you need
to successfully do a project take over.
Now, before we get into those tips
on how to successfully take over a project,
I would like for you to stay to the end of this video
because I'm going to share with you six basics
you need to ensure
that your projects are not failing, a definite must.
And I'm going to share with you at the end of this video
how you can get your hands on it.
Hi, if you're new here, welcome.
My name is Adriana Girdler,
and you landed
on the best project management channel out there,
YouTube, world, universe, everywhere
where my little brain thinks it ought to be.
Anyway, but seriously,
on a real serious note, we really do have a good content.
I would love it if you chose to subscribe
and be part of this awesome community, as it tells YouTube
we're doing a good job.
Now, if you want to know how to take over a project
'cause you were just handed those marching orders
from somebody else, which can be a little tricky,
let's get to it.
Meet with a sponsor or your PMO if you have one.
Now you've been handed over a project,
you really need to understand
from the top, the top, the project sponsor
is the one who's championing this project,
and the PMO,
if you have one, is the one that's usually overseeing it
and ensuring that all the strategy is being met,
you want to find out from them,
why is it that you're taking it over?
What are the current issues, where it is in the process,
any additional insights,
'cause this is the information you need.
This is not about the tactically,
what do I have to do?
This is about gimme the scoop,
the other information that we don't really
have written down anywhere, but we all are talking
about as to why it's being handed over to someone else.
That's valuable info you do not want to miss or ignore.
Meet the previous PM.
Now, not all project takeovers are hostile takeovers, okay?
Some projects that you get handed off
that's already started could be for very good reasons.
Maybe that project manager has to be taken
off that project in order
to do another more complex project,
or who knows, maybe you know them really well
and they left the company.
But the fact is you do want to connect if you can,
and they're available, with the past project manager,
just like the sponsor and the PMO,
the project manager really now has all
of that nuts and bolts, the details,
and nitty gritty stuff that you really want to get into.
And you want to get a little more information from them
like about the team members, what can they recommend?
What are the struggles that they were experiencing?
What's really going well?
Any recommendations that they have,
and you want to make sure
if you have any questions specifically,
so let's say project documentation,
you can ask them that information too.
Meet your team.
This is really important.
Now you are taking over
from the past project manager and who's really important.
It's your team, it's your team.
They actually know what's going on.
So it's something that you want to introduce yourself,
and guess what?
Really good news for you
if you go search bar and YouTube Adriana Girdler
introducing yourself as project manager,
I actually have a video solely
on that topic that I do recommend that you actually watch
before you introduce yourself to your team,
there's some really good little tidbits in there.
You want to connect with your team,
spend some time with them.
Again, depending on why this handoff to you is happening,
if it's a positive handoff, it's going to be much smoother,
this introduction and talking to them
'cause it's really just getting to know the personalities,
what are people working on?
Getting connected so
that you can start synergising as a team, but it,
let's say it's not a positive reason why you're taking over.
Maybe the past project manager was terrible
and left the company and created havoc.
You're going to have to approach it slightly differently,
but the key to it all,
whether it's good or bad is listening.
Listen, see what they have to say.
They're going to give you a lot of insightful information.
And this is your opportunity at this real early,
early stages where you're probably going to get a lot
of honesty because they either going to say it was going
great, we want to continue this or is, you know what,
this was the words project ever.
We need make sure we don't do A, B, C, D, listen.
You're going to get so much valuable information
from your team.
Review the project charter and the project plan.
So I know I was talking about the people part
and why, because you know what?
You can't get a project done without people.
So I brought that forth.
Now it doesn't mean that you do the people first
and you don't do your project plan
and your project charter reviewing it.
You probably want to do this in parallel activities,
but you want to really go in depth into the plan,
really go through it.
Understand all the nuances,
double check with your team members
maybe the previous PM to really ask questions
about what's going on your sponsors,
but you need to go in depth
and really have clarity as to what's in there,
what's not.
Now here's something that you have
to realize too.
And it's so easy to do, to walk
into someone's work, and not everybody works the same.
It's not standard and to judge it.
So judging what people have done
is not going to help you in the project.
You want to be neutral here.
You wanna look at it through the facts,
through the lens of what is it that we're delivering on,
and what's been identified, do a gap analysis,
bring some team members in
and maybe it's even a team activity
so you can really vet out
and have a stronger plan,
and even a, maybe more
in depth charter, 'cause again, those are live documents.
So just remember
that when you do the review, which is really important,
don't judge it while you're doing it.
Look at it from a perspective
as, what else do I potentially need,
and what's my style as a project manager,
because that also comes into play with the data collection
that you're going to review or you're gonna be doing
because of the documents that you're reviewing
from the previous project manager.
Review your budget and review your schedule.
Okay, more documentation.
Yay, 'cause it's all about documentation,
and project management.
You need documentation to run things
and make sure they're going smoothly.
Your budget and your schedule are the next things
that are really critical to the charter and the plan.
So the budget is, where are we in the budget?
How much do I have to play with?
You really need to have a very clear understanding of it,
and maybe there's new ways
of working that you want to do with the budget.
Don't know, like maybe there's someone else
who can oversee it
or are you going to split that responsibility?
Here's a good opportunity depending
on your style to really set some new ground rules.
In regard to the schedule,
this becomes really important too
because you want to be very clear
that your schedule and the project plan line up.
So you have to do some analysis here.
And again, another really good opportunity
that if you need to change how things
are run in your project
because you're looking at all this documentation, you can.
And it's like a little bit of a window of an opportunity,
so you really need to ensure you need to do this ASAP
as soon as you get transferred
onto this existing project.
Start moving forward, okay?
You are on a project that's already existing
and already has been doing work and tasks.
You've just been thrown on it.
I told you to meet with all these people,
review documentation.
You do that in parallel
with stuff progressing,
because you don't want to say stop, I need to get cut up,
because that's going to create issues for you.
So in parallel, while your team is still working,
you're analyzing, reviewing everything,
once you're done that analysis,
you want to bring everyone together
and you want to move forward together.
You want to either course correct
some things get their input,
and collectively as a group move forward together.
This is where you both were on individual pass.
Because again, they were on one, you were coming in,
and now you're going to merge and you're going to do it
together. So it becomes really important as quickly
as you can to really turn
around your ramp up time that you need.
And unfortunately, it's shorter,
because you have things that are going on
you need to make sure that you're on top of it,
but integrating and moving forward
and getting that team consensus is going to be really
important and help you to really get connected to your new
team. Inject new energy.
Okay, it's interesting,
'cause I think with projects we sometimes think
about the task
and the paperwork and all this other stuff,
but there is this opportunity where you are brand new
where you can inject new energy depending even more so,
if this, you're taking over a project
that wasn't going over really well
and had some bad blood in it,
and people were really upset.
So you want to do inject new energy and the nice way
to do it is here's an opportunity that you can actually
do a kickoff, a project manager kickoff to get
everyone together and really set your boundaries,
the expectation, the ways of working with your team,
and what, and also just kind of, you know,
get everyone together from a team building perspective too,
you can even inject some of those exercises
in there as well.
But injecting new energy, it kind
of sets a tone with, hey, let's move forward from this.
Yeah, we had that, close the door,
we're going to move forward here,
'cause it's not just about the paperwork,
it's not just about the documents.
It's about how do we interact
with each other, and you know what, work is work,
but why can't we have fun while we're doing it,
and to do those really fun activities.
Okay, you're here at the end and I promised you
if you stayed that I would show you how to get this.
You want your projects to stop struggling?
Hear them six basics you need
in order to be successful.
And you know what, it's free,
and because it's so important,
it's really easy to get.
It's in a link under this video,
so definitely check it out.