THERE'S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN

Fenelon presents tested strategies for taking over work projects midstream.

In his nonfiction debut, the author takes an in-depth look at an aspect of the business and professional world that seldom gets comprehensive treatment despite being, as Fenelon supports with data, nearly ubiquitous: the experience of taking over a project you didn’t start. Project managers deal with this situation all the time, and in these pages the author draws on his decades of experience (more than 40 years of project management across multiple industries, with both local and global teams) to lay out some principles that may help the process go more smoothly. PMs are frequently given control of some long-standing project with a deadline and a budget they didn’t set, often staffed by people they don’t know and might not have chosen. Typically, the project is failing in some way (running over costs, falling behind delivery date), hence the need for a new PM. Fenelon lays out the basics: take a bird’s-eye view of the entire project, zero in on a handful of immediate problems that need addressing (his book isn’t exclusively about ailing projects, but the emphasis is clear), and, most importantly, come up with a new plan for completing the project, since the original plan almost certainly isn’t working. In clear prose that’s mercifully light on corporate jargon (and often usefully illustrated by instructive inset sections), Fenelon goes over the key priorities of a new PM: “rapidly assess the current status, identify any issues, and prioritize them for correction while keeping the project running” (this last in reference to Fenelon’s comparison of a new PM’s job to a mechanic changing the tires on a moving automobile). Neophyte managers will find his clarifications invaluable.

A straight-talking and all-encompassing guide to assuming control of work in progress.