I was contracted as Project Manager in a large company with many different projects, ranging from small 20 kEuro enhancements, to multi-million and multi-year giant projects.

A tough nut to crack

I obviously started off with some entry-level projects, until I learned that one of the projects was a tough nut to crack for the company. They actually had a legal obligation to do the project, but it involved either the rework of old technology with worldwide only a limited number of expensive specialists left, or the development of a completely new system.

Both solutions were considered extremely expensive, while there was actually no budget and no profitable business case. Procrastination of previous project managers had resulted in both options to have no chance of still being accomplished within the legal deadline. And so since nobody really wanted to take up this project that would surely fail, the company decided to assign it to the newly hired external contractor.

When I understood the impossibility of both scenarios, I decided to go back to the actual core of the requirements. Going into the details, I found that there was actually an easy way to provide a work-around that was legally sound, and easy to implement without specialist knowledge. In the end, the solution was delivered in only 50 mandays.

A key part in our DNA

The success of this first project, allowed me to stay with the company for a long time. And each time I was assigned to a project, I started off by asking the project sponsor: “What went wrong, or what is considered impossible in your project?” Because that was the typical reason for assigning the project to me.

As a Bayard consultant, you help your customer by thinking out of the box and going beyond what is expected. This is a key part in our DNA.