The Art of Project Management

11.4. Damage control

If enough problems occur at the same time, or if something truly devastating happens, the first move must be damage control. This means that from the first moment onward, your top priority is to return the project to an acceptable state. Imagine being the pilot of a 747 that has just lost all engine power. Until you've restored power, not much else matters. All of your energy is focused on solving the one problem that all other problems are dependent on. You're in damage-control mode.

What pilots and captains are trained to do in damage-control situations is to diagnose the problem, and try to isolate both the symptoms and the causes. Aircraft pilots and astronauts usually have a specific procedure for doing this for each major situation that might occur (often these procedures are kept in a book because there are many of them). The idea is that when the shit has really hit the fan, there won't be time to invent a procedure—and maybe not even enough time to follow one. So, when pilots do find themselves in an emergency, they begin the diagnostic sequence and systematically work at the problem until they find a resolution (or, if they fail, crash).

As a project manager, you will eventually find yourself in a damage-control situation. There won't be time to explore alternatives or consider options. There will be something very important that is very broken, and it won't be clear how it can possibly be resolved. To handle this situation, follow this list:

• Call ...