Project Management Checklists For Dummies

Chapter 18

Taking Over an Existing Project

In This Chapter

Pressures on taking over a project

A checklist for the Project Manager

Checklists for projects in trouble

Taking over as Project Sponsor

There’s no getting round it, taking over someone else’s project is usually a really tough job, and that’s for two reasons. First, there’s only one chance in a million that the project is set up the way you would have set it up had you been in at the start. Second, you’ll be under great time pressure. You have to get to understand the project and its characteristics fast, and the clock won’t stop while you do.

This chapter is to help you get to grips with your newly acquired project, and to do it quickly. There’s a checklist to help if you are a Project Manager taking over a project that’s in decent shape, even if it’s not quite as you’d have set it up. Then there are a couple of lists to help where you have been sent in as a replacement Project Manager because the project is in trouble. Finally there’s a checklist to give you some advice if you are the Sponsor stepping in to take over the ...