Project Rescue FAQ

A project needs rescue if: Budget is overrun by 25% or more. Timeline has slipped 3+ months. User adoption is below 40% post-launch. Critical functionality isn't working as promised. The project has been paused or put on hold. Team morale is low and project is at risk of failure. You're hearing users complain about the system rather than gaining value. We've worked with dozens of projects in these situations—you're not alone.

Most failures fall into these categories: Underestimated scope or complexity. Inadequate discovery leading to misaligned expectations. Poor change management and user training. Technical issues (data quality, integration problems) discovered too late. Unclear business priorities and shifting requirements. Lack of executive sponsorship or engagement. Insufficient resources (too few people, too little time). These are addressable—the question is whether your current approach is working.

Yes, but it depends on how far along you are. If you're early (2-3 months in), we can pivot and reset direction. If you're partway through, we diagnose the core issues and recommend stopping, restarting, or salvaging valuable work. If you've already gone live with problems, we can stabilise, fix critical issues, and build a recovery plan. The key is moving quickly—the longer a failing project runs, the harder recovery becomes.

We conduct a Rapid Assessment (1 week): Meet the core team and stakeholders to understand what went wrong. Review documentation, project plans, and current state. Identify: What's working (salvage this), what's broken (fix this), what needs to be restarted. Provide an executive summary and recovery options. No judgment—just facts and a path forward. Most clients are relieved just to have a clear diagnosis.

Costs vary based on complexity and recovery approach: Rapid assessment (diagnosis): £5,000-£15,000. Recovery planning: £10,000-£25,000. Stabilisation and fix phase: £30,000-£100,000+. Full restart or new approach: equivalent to a fresh implementation. We always discuss options and costs upfront. Many clients find that investing in rescue now is cheaper than letting a failing project drag on for another year.

It depends on your situation: Diagnosis and planning: 2-3 weeks. Stabilisation (fixing critical issues): 4-8 weeks. Get-well plan execution: 12-20 weeks depending on scope. Full restart: similar to a fresh implementation (8-16 weeks). The timeline also depends on how much your internal team can contribute. We recommend dedicated resources (at least 40% from your side) to accelerate recovery.

Not usually. In 70% of our rescue cases, we salvage 60-80% of the existing work and fix the remainder. In some cases, we recommend restarting specific modules while keeping others. Complete replacement is rare and usually only recommended if the underlying approach was fundamentally flawed. Our goal is always to rescue what's salvageable and avoid the pain of starting from scratch.

This is delicate but manageable. We: Don't blame—focus on solving the problem, not assigning fault. Bring in experienced external eyes so the internal team isn't defensive. Reassess roles: Some team members may be in the wrong positions; others may need support or training. Keep morale up by celebrating the recovery and showing them how to succeed. Many internal teams step up when given a clear recovery path and proper support.

Yes, and we recommend it. You typically run the old system in parallel while we stabilise and fix the new system. This reduces risk—if recovery takes longer than expected, business continuity isn't affected. The trade-off is you're managing two systems for a period, but most clients prefer this to being forced to use a broken system. We set a clear cutover date once the new system is stable and proven.

This is critical. If users lost faith in the system (or the project team), you need to rebuild that trust. We: Be transparent about what went wrong and what we're fixing. Show early wins so users see improvement quickly. Involve key users in the recovery plan so they feel heard. Provide excellent training on the stabilised system. Maintain open communication—no surprises. Morale typically improves dramatically once users see a clear recovery plan working.

Almost certainly. Most implementation failures trace back to inadequate discovery—not understanding your processes, requirements, or business priorities deeply enough. Good discovery doesn't mean 6-month studies; it means focused, intensive engagement (2-3 weeks) with the right people. For future projects, insist on proper discovery. For the current rescue, we'll do thorough discovery as part of our assessment and recovery plan.

We help you build resilience: Establish a Centre of Excellence (COE) for ongoing governance and change management. Build internal capability so you're not dependent on external consultants. Create a lessons-learned document so the team understands what went wrong and how to prevent it. Implement proper project governance, change management, and user adoption practices. Stay engaged—many organisations bring us in quarterly for health checks and optimisation.

No project comes with a 100% guarantee, but we can guarantee our effort and expertise. We commit to: Complete transparency and honesty about risks and challenges. Rapid diagnosis and clear communication. Delivering the agreed recovery plan with defined milestones. Ongoing support until stability is achieved. The risk is shared—your team and ours must work together, and leadership must stay engaged. Success depends on commitment from both sides.