Recovery Programmes
A genuine plan, or a work of fiction.
What it is
A revised programme intended to pull a slipping project back toward its completion date.
Why it matters
A recovery programme is either credible or fiction, and most fail on the same unrealistic assumptions. Testing it is a core controls task.
In practice
- Test the recovery against evidence — is the assumed productivity achievable given actuals to date?
- Check what has actually been compressed: durations cut, logic relaxed, resources assumed but not secured?
- A recovery that relies on stripping float or overlapping everything is not credible.
- Recovery has to be resourced — more work in less time needs the people to do it.
Watch for
- Durations halved with no method statement behind them.
- Logic relaxed (FS changed to SS) purely to shorten the path.
- Assumed productivity that was never actually achieved on the job.