How to Take Over an Existing Project Successfully?

As a PMP Certification holder - here's what I usually attempt to accomplish and what I propose if you want to take over an established project effectively.

·         Meet with the original account manager. 

This may or may not be helpful, depending on how far along you are in the project. The account manager who completed the transaction, on the other hand, always has some useful information on assumptions made, client needs identified, and estimates obtained and how they were derived. All of this may be beneficial, but if the project is just two-thirds complete, it is unlikely. It's your decision, and a phone call is definitely worthwhile, but don't waste too much time on this stage.

·         Meet with the PMO director or the executive manager who gave you this task.

Meet with the person who assigned you to the project one-on-one. Get as much high-level (and, if possible, detailed) knowledge transfer as possible. What caused this to happen? What is the customer's current level of satisfaction? What are the issues that remain unresolved? Include the exiting PM in this conversation if they are accessible, and obtain as much information from them as possible.

·         Peruse current, available project documentation. 

Next, gather as much current project documentation as possible. The most recent 2-3 status reports will be extremely useful, as will a thorough examination of the amended project timeline. As learned while preparing for the PMP Certification- examine the resource prediction and budget analysis data in great depth as well. If the exiting manager was inept at handling either of these, you'll have to start from zero and, more than likely, compile some historical budget data for the project so you know where it stands. This is really important information.

·         Conduct an internal team meeting. 

Meet with the internal project team to discuss the project as a whole, all outstanding issues, what the customer pain points appear to be, what caused whatever is happening on the project to happen (necessitating the PM replacement action), and what the next hot tasks are after you've gotten somewhat up to speed. To recover as much consumer confidence and happiness as possible at this moment, it's vital that you look to be in charge as much as possible before standing in front of the client.

·         Introduce yourself to the project customer and move forward. 

Finally, throw yourself in with both feet. Introduce yourself to the project client in a one-on-one call or at the next project status meeting. Hand them an updated status report and project schedule for the current week, as well as your résumé and project experience description on similar projects. The goal is to take command – and you might have to "fake it till you make it" at this point because you're still attempting to catch up, depending on how rapidly you've been asked to board.

Want to learn more insights on the same? Take on a Project Management Institute certification course today!