Real-life tips for managing Red projects and getting back to Green

Has your project just ticked over into Red status? I know what that feels like! And I know what the scrutiny is like too – suddenly you’ve got a lot of attention on your project and everyone is demanding a path to Green.

I’ve been managing projects for over 20 years and many of my projects and programs have had periods of Red… sometimes for a long time!

It is something you can handle, so let me share my top tips for surviving the Red stage and let’s get you tooled up to talk to stakeholders and get back to Green.

First things first: act quickly

The first thing to do when your project goes Red is to act quickly. Make sure the right people know that you will be reporting the project as Red, because your sponsor won’t like it if they find out about it through the weekly portfolio report and not from you.

Hopefully you would have reported Amber/Yellow status before you zinged up to Red, so it won’t be a total surprise.

Understanding Red status projects

OK, let’s think about what makes a project Red in the first place.

You’ve moved to Red because the project is:

• Outside the defined tolerance for time/schedule e.g. is going to miss a major milestone by a significant amount
• Outside the defined tolerance for budget e.g. is going to go over budget by a significant amount
• Outside the defined tolerance for quality or scope e.g. is not going to deliver what you thought it would.

Or some other criteria as defined in your project management process internally, that specifies what Red means for you.

Or (and this is a biggie) the project manager is lying to herself about the status and is reporting Green even though the work is what we call a watermelon project: Green on the outside, Red in the middle when you cut it open and have a proper look.

Don’t be that project manager!

It’s really important to have a definition of what Red means, that everyone understands, before you have to use it. Then the conversation is about ‘this project now meets the criteria for Red reporting’ rather than ‘We’ve hit a major issue so I’m going to slap Red on it this week.’

What causes a project to end up Red?

Normally, a troubled project moves to Red status because something is out of alignment with the baselines and original agreements.

For example, maybe the testing phase has uncovered more bugs than you were expecting and that’s going to delay go live.

Maybe a key vendor has pulled out or said they can’t get you the kit in time for you to hit your milestones.

Maybe your estimates were poor or you forgot to add something into scope that you really should have worked out in advance.

It happens. All experienced project managers have been there.

Red means ‘management attention required’ and that’s what you’ve probably got now.

Managing stakeholder expectations

Stakeholders tend to not like Red projects as they bring a lot of attention from senior leaders and the PMO.

However, I’ve always thought of Red as a good thing. It means you get the attention you need to unblock your project: whether that’s more money, an agreement that the date can change or something else. (OK, that something else might be closing your project prematurely…).

Manage stakeholder expectations when your project goes Red. Let them know that there are governance hoops to jump through and that you’ll be escalating the problem, with a view to securing support to keep the project moving forward.

That might mean they have things to do as well, for example, they might need to lead a replanning exercise.

Escalating project status

Generally, you’ll escalate the project status and flag it as Red through your normal reporting process. That might be a weekly or monthly status report, or a report to your steering group.

Complete your report as normal.

Then let the key stakeholders know what is in the report before you submit it, especially the sponsor. Circulate and socialize!

The sponsor, finance lead and any other key internal stakeholders should see the report before it goes in, preferably, and then submit it.

Should you have a plan to get back to Green by the point of doing the escalation? Yes, ideally, but sometimes things happen so quickly that you just don’t have that option.

Getting back to Green

Getting back to Green is everyone’s goal at this point. Or frankly, sometimes you might settle for Amber/Yellow!

It is often relatively straightforward to identify what needs to happen:

• If you are running late, your steering group or program board needs to approve a replan to a later date or the resources to enable you to deliver to the original date.
• If you’re running over budget, you need approval to increase your budget.

However, getting either of those things, or any other remedial action, agreed, approved and implemented is a big ask.

Here are 5 ways to get your project back to Green.

1.     Request more (people) resources

Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to add more human resources. For example, bring in a contractor to speed up developing an IT system.

Beware of Brook’s law: adding more people sometimes makes the work go slower because you have to bring them up to speed.

One alternative is to secure more time from key resources so they aren’t splitting their time between several projects – get approval to have them focus on your project until you’re back in control.

2.     Request more funding

Do you need more cash? If your estimates were wrong or scope was missed, you might need more funding to pay for the additional work or materials.

Put together a request asking for the additional funding – and be sure it’s comprehensive. You don’t want to be going back in a couple of months asking for more.

3.     Reduce the scope

Take a look at what you are delivering and see if there are any items that can be pushed to a future sprint or a Phase 2 project.

Don’t make decisions on dropping scope items without the support of business owners and your project sponsor. Make a recommendation and say how you will address the scope gaps in the future. Get them to sign off on the fact they’ll be getting less this round.

4.     Request more time

Sometimes you can complete the work but it will take longer. If your project end date is now going to be outside of the tolerance (assuming you set some in the first place – I’d go for 10% as a ballpark figure), you will need approval to slip the date further.

Lay out your revised project timeline and get the project board to sign off on this.

5.     Avoid going Red in the first place

All of the above methods affect project benefits. If the project is late or costs more, the benefits are reduced.

So, the best plan is to avoid going Red in the first place, by actively managing the project. Assess the level of risk. Double down on corrective action when the project is at Amber status, so that everything is back on track before Red becomes the inevitable conclusion.

I know, easier said than done, especially on complex projects!

Managing back to Green

With your recovery plan in place, it’s time to monitor progress against the actions you’ve agreed. Get any approval papers through the governance to secure additional funding, resources, time or scope changes. Bring in your extra people and brief them.

Update your budget documentation, schedule and other project artifacts.

Report weekly on the recovery actions and make sure you are transparent about how the remedial plan is working out.

The bigger picture: Tips for PMO leaders

Project managers are clear about what to do with Red status projects, but how do PMO leaders and portfolio managers create the psychological safety to allow teams to report Red in the first place?

Create a no-blame, problem-solving culture

There’s no value in pointing the finger. The project is where it is, and we can’t go back in time to do anything differently. There is a place for lessons learned to uncover how the project got into this state, but for now, the focus is on recovery planning.

If the organization has a culture of problem-solving and solution creation, then you can quickly get through the difficult conversations about the ‘what’ and get on to the ‘how’. Support project managers to create an action plan.

Use peer reviews and project assurance processes

Project assurance is the process of making sure a project is performing within the agreed methodology, standards, guidelines, processes and practices. It’s a way of assuring senior management that the project is being managed well.

Peer reviews do a similar thing by sharing good practice between experienced project managers and highlighting areas where a project manager could be doing something differently for a better outcome. In other words, it’s an early opportunity to avoid poor project performance and check for optimism bias – we all get a bit lazy as project managers from time to time and miss out the easy fixes!

Both practices ensure there is adequate check and challenge and opportunity for review to spot easy fixes to keep the project under control.

Key takeaways

Don’t be afraid to turn your project Red. If it meets the criteria, it should be Red, and that doesn’t always need to mean bad news. It’s the opportunity for the team to work together to course correct.

When your project is Red (or preferably before, at Amber/Yellow status), proactively manage the project’s path back to Green. Work with the project team to identify the best course of action.

Take the appropriate steps and communicate these, or escalate to get the approvals you need to return to Green. You’ll soon be back on track for project success!