"The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!"

Whenever we set goals in life, we form in our imaginations an image of how we intend things to be. We know where we are now, and say to ourselves 'this is where I'm going to be'. And whether it's personal progress or the completion of a project (at work or at home), we should be setting out a clear plan of how we're going to get there.

Admittedly, if that plan concerns our own development - such as hoping to one day move out into the country or find that dream job - then it might well be understandably vague and imprecise; however, if we're working on a project, be it a huge business transformation, a little redecorating at home, or any point in between, we really should have a clearly defined proposal of how we'll get from A to B. This doesn't diminish the ultimate goal in any way, but simply identifies every step we need to take, and every obstacle we need to overcome, in order to reach that goal - and the clearer and more accurate the plan, the easier it'll be to adhere to it, and the greater the likelihood of achieving the longed-for end result.

And still, in spite of all our careful planning, things go wrong. That little spot of redecorating, derailed by a car crash on the way to the DIY store. That major business transformation, a new multi-million-pound development, part-built and knocked back to earth by a hurricane. Whatever the goal, no matter how large or small, how vague or precise the plan, anything can be struck by forces outside or control. But the unexpected impact on a business project doesn't have to leave us nought but grief and pain - and with the right preparation, that promised joy can still be within reach.

Scheduling and budgeting

If a catastrophe comes along and destroys the entire project from top to bottom, then there's really nothing that you, the project manager, can do about it. But that's really not very likely, and it's more an insurance concern than anything within your remit - far more plausible is a major event that damages part of your project.

In order to stop the whole project falling apart because of an issue with one aspect of it - for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, for want of a horse the rider was lost, and so on - there is no alternative to having a thorough, clear and accurate understanding of the entire schedule and budget.

Maintaining the project schedule as a Gantt chart does more than merely showing what needs to be done. It illustrates the relationship between different tasks, how the completion of one may be necessary for another to start. Immediately, you can see the wider impact of a major delay to a task (or a number of them). But you can also see which elements of the process are not affected by the problem, and where resources can be redistributed to keep everything moving as far as is possible. After all, if the crisis, however large, hasn't completely killed the project, the last thing you want to do is to waste further time and money not working on the rest of the scheme - but without a clearly defined schedule, that's just what you'll end up doing.

A comprehensive budget will work in tandem with the schedule in keeping the project moving ahead. If you need to reorder the schedule, it's essential to know how this will affect the costs: for instance, moving a task forward may increase the cost of that specific task, but nonetheless reduce the financial impact of the original problem. If the schedule changes, the budget must change with it, or else risk derailing the whole project.

Disaster recovery

It's also vital to prepare for the worst. If, for example, an unpredictable event delays construction of a building or temporarily inhibits the use of a resource, it's often possible to alter the schedule and work around that delay. However, many projects rely on accessing irreplaceable data (which may include those schedules and budgets, as well as data about the project details); what happens if that data should be lost? The company offices could be hit by fire, or flood, or an earthquake perhaps, or the IT network may be infected by an internet virus or an external attack. There's no point trying to address any such problems after the event - preparation is everything.

There are two prongs to the data protection plan that must always be kept in mind. Firstly, you must always seek to minimise the chance of data loss: this means installing high-quality and up-to-date anti-virus and firewall software across the company network, the cost of which may seem large, but is always far less than the potential cost of irreparable data loss; it also demands security around the systems themselves, using complex and frequently changing passwords for computers and networks, and also ensuring that the physical security of the building is highly effective.

Secondly, because data crises can still happen, backing up is critical. Back up all data of any importance, and back it up regularly. The frequency of the backing up is important throughout any organisation, but of particular significance to your project: the circumstances of your project, its state of progress and any issues that arise, will mean that your key data needs to keep up-to-date in order to be useful. And as an unavoidable data loss could happen at any time, it becomes imperative to always have the most recent information backed up, so that your project isn't delayed by obsolete information.

Finally, but no less importantly, backups should be stored separately from the systems that their data came from - after all, were a network of computers to be destroyed in a fire, you don't want the same conflagration to take the backups.

Saving your project from a major disruption isn't a question of ensuring serious problems never arise - that isn't something any of us can guarantee - but of making the best of a bad situation. Being able to deal with whatever pitfalls may crop up during a project, preparing yourself to handle them and to keep going wherever possible, is vital in ensuring a successful result for the business (and you may want to consider a short training course in project management to develop your crisis handling skills). And with that preparation and management, you can be confident that your best laid schemes will eventually lead to joy, whatever grievous or painful obstacles may be thrown in their way.