As the economy slowly recovers, project teams are facing an unusual challenge. Management is coming to project offices, and to product managers, and asking them to “restart” projects that were suspended some time ago due to economic concerns.

Restarting a project can be infinitely more complex than starting it originally. The original project plan might have been created with great care over an extended period but the assumptions that play behind the scenes in any project may have changed dramatically. Management may not be aware of the challenges the project might face. Here are just a few:

Those Experts? They’re Not Available

The personnel in place when the original project plan was created may no longer be available. They may now be involved in other projects. They might have moved positions and be in other roles within the organization or they might have left the organization altogether during restructuring. It is not uncommon to find that when restructuring is done on a large scale that one of the most common departures are people who are near retirement age. This is particularly true in large organizations. Not surprisingly, these long standing employees often have unique key skills and experience that the project was counting on when the original plan was created. You’re going to have to go back to your resource plan to see what has changed and even redo a skills inventory, if there have been big changes.

Read the entire article at Project Times.