We have assisted the Oregonian in their drive for fair and accurate reporting by supplying objective input on the Cover Oregon failure:

May 28, 2014: State Invites 10 Firms To Shift Cover Oregon To The Federal Health Insurance Exchange by Nick Budnick

April 9, 2014: Decision To Scrap Or Salvage Cover Oregon Health Insurance Exchange Poses Risks Either Way by Nick Budnick

April 4, 2014: Cover Oregon Consultant: Fix For Health Insurance Exchange Could Take $40 Million, 21 Months by Nick Budnick

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Prior to signing any contract or statement of work (SOW) it should be reviewed by your legal team. While legal experts understand legalities that will helpful in court, they are not delivery experts who can determine whether a SOW will provide you with the product that you anticipate, need, and desire. This review will analyze the scope, methodology, deliverables, and proposed cost to identify for areas that point to weaknesses in the ability to deliver or misalignment in intentions that could result in project failure.

SOW Review Benefits:

• Demystify the SOW.
• Get more value from your subcontractor.
• Minimize risk and vulnerability.
• Save money by avoiding risk.
• Eliminate ambiguity.
• Understand and resolve the gaps between the contract and SOW.
• Identify what is missing that should be added.
• Proactive, Preventative, Productive.

Projects never go bad overnight. It takes time. They slowly drift away from the baseline. Maybe it is a change request that goes undocumented, or a series of tasks that run a little late, or an over-optimistic employee not realizing they are in trouble, or misinterpreted communication. They all add up over time and are very difficult to detect while in the heat of the delivery. It often takes an experienced outsider who is removed from the history and politics to see the issues and make the recommendations that will keep a project on track. The Project Health Check does just that—keeping your project healthy.

A project's destiny is set very early, often before the project even starts. A properly run project launch is the first opportunity when all of the key project stakeholders are gathered and can identify and correct issues. Critical to the kickoff's and project's success is having the right stakeholders reviewing and agreeing to the project approach, risks, and mitigations. Without this short alignment workshop the incident of project failure is much higher.

Project Launch Benefits Include:

• Set up the project for the best chance of success.
• Define the proper project approach through prototyping solutions.
• Identify and vet major project risks.
• Assess mitigation strategies.
• Determine contingency requirements.
• Attain consensus on roles and responsibilities.

In May 2007, the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) signed a contract with Bearing Point, Inc. to modernize the State’s unemployment processing system. The project was called the DUA Quality Unemployment System Transformation (QUEST) Project. Bearing Point filed for bankruptcy in February 2009 and Deloitte announced they would buy Bearing Point for $350MM in March of the same year.

In order to comply with the Affordable Care Act, the State of Oregon made the decision to build its own Health Insurance Exchange (ORHIX). An online portal to allow applicants was supposed to go live October 1, 2013. As of March 30, 2014 the site was not functional and all ORHIX applications must be processed from paper applications.

As they say in the army, never volunteer. Nowhere could that be truer than when it comes to project sponsorship. Given a choice between a root canal and project sponsorship, most managers and executives start looking up dentists on the internet. It is a sad fact—one that project managers must deal with on a daily basis. It is often the project manager’s first solid opportunity to lead up.

Recently I received the book Strategies for Project Sponsorship by Vicki James, Ron Rosenhead, and Peter Taylor, all good friends of mine and trustworthy twitter contributors. It took a while for the book to trickle “up” to the top of my stack; however, when it did I was more than impressed.