PREFACE

Blueprint For Project Recovery—A Project Management Guide is a unique combination

of text and interactive CD that provides:

❒ A tutorial for the aspiring project manager

❒ A text for the newly assigned project manager

❒ A checklist for the ongoing project manager

❒ A quick-response recovery tool for the project manager with a project in

trouble

If you are part of a small business, this book provides insight into all levels

of projects. It draws from the ‘‘best-of-the-best’’ to provide you with a consolidated

view into what all businesses, large, small, government, and commercial,

are doing.

If you are part of a large business or are associated with the federal, state, or

local government as an employee or as a contractor, this book has special meaning

for you. It uses many federal policies, plans, processes, and standards as

references. It uses these references for two reasons: first, they are thorough, and

second, you, as a taxpayer, have already paid for them—why not use them?

Projects and programs usually consist of three principal periods—planning,

conducting, and concluding. The conducting period is divided into two parts

that occur sporadically: normal and terrifying. The normal part consists of the

day-to-day activities that are going according to plan. The terrifying part is

when the project goes off track—roughly akin to a ‘‘near-miss’’ in an airplane.

This book was written to take some of the terror out of the ‘‘near-miss.’’

While this book won’t solve all your problems, it will give you a leg up on a

lot of them. In addition, this book will provide techniques to tailor or customize

the process to your way of doing business or for your specific business area or

your specific technical problems.

Many companies reward project and program managers for jobs well done.

These rewards come in a number of different forms. One of the rewards is in

the category of recovery. It is a coveted award because any project or program

manager who has been around for a while knows that it is considerably more

difficult to restore a project or program than it is to start up or maintain one.

Frequently, the recovery award is called the Phoenix Award. It is called the

Phoenix Award because it relates to the mysterious phoenix—the bird that is

the symbol of immortality, resurrection, life, and death. In ancient mythology,

the phoenix was said to consume itself in flames and then, three days later arise

from the ashes, allowing the cycle of life to continue. . . .

All too often, projects and programs are consumed in flames and turn to

ashes. The purposes of this book are to recommend up-front planning, provide

a checklist for ongoing projects, and, if you are really in a bind, effect the resurrection

from the ashes and allow the project’s cycle of life to continue.

Now, let’s look at what is forthcoming in this book and how we are going to

handle these elements.

The first part of the book consists of Chapters 1 through 5. Chapter 1 sets

the stage with an overview of the project/program environment and the recovery

process. Chapters 2 and 3 present checklists for programmatic and technical

issues, together with the associated explanations that can be used as a checklist

for planning a project or checking an ongoing project. Chapters 4 and 5 follow

the same convention but, this time, offer a recovery approach for those issues

that have, or may have, gone off track.

The second part of the book, Chapters 6 through 10, provides techniques

and methodologies for expanding the provided database and tailoring it to your

specific needs.

I recommend that you read the book from beginning to end and follow the

process that is outlined. However, I recognize that you may not have time to

do all that. For that reason, I have provided checklists to make the process easier

and, if you have a problem that needs immediate attention, you can jump to

Chapter 11 and use the interactive CD to help you solve the problem staring

you in the face. If you take that approach, however, take some time to go back

and read the whole book so you won’t get in that bind again!

Ronald B. Cagle

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