Synopsis and Five steps to recover the project: Admit theres a problem: All the failing projects will have one thing in common that is either the project manager or may be the executives or clients fail to identify the flaws. But by the time the mistake is identified its a very tight serious situation where the employees are expected to work for long hours and tend to give up their jobs not wanting to work for a failed project. But one should take it up as a challenge and face the reality. Find the root cause of the problem: The project management and the team participants have to analyze the situation, acknowledge the issue and take stock of possible causes and address them in a reasonable and realistic way. More often the root cause may be political issues the budget or funding. Or even the problems exist because of the failure of the technology as a result of wrong decisions. Go straight to the source: The problem can sometimes be traced to one person called The Bottleneck. If in that case all the team members need to first document the problem and have to meet the person to develop a plan for improving the performance by training or tools. If this doesnt help in solving the problem then the bottleneck has to be removed and replaced. Develop a plan for recovering the project-or not: The project manager has to plan as how to move forward. He suggests on creating a viability report that includes the overview of the stakeholders interviewed, documents reviewed and issues identified and underlying causes; outline of the option explored and their causes; outline of the options explored with pros and cons of each and recommendations and justification of the way to move forward. If continuation of the project is advisable then report should state the conditions that need to be successful and a list of recommended corrective actions. If scrapping the project is the option then the report should include alternatives for meeting the needs that initially sparked the project. Rally the troops: this is the phase as to take the decision wisely as to kill the project or to reinvestigating the project and to develop it all over again. The best decision would be to boost the team morale and prepare a new project phase. This should be done by considering the opinions, suggestions and remarks of the team members. Involve the team heavily in rebuilding the project and estimating the project tasks. The main objective here is to make a plan thats more realistic and not directed by any senior officials and also implementing better project management control and structures and backup from senior management.