Explaining to sponsor how initiated project entails far more work than anticipated and lengthier timeline

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Bieksa03
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Posts: 1
Joined: Wed 04 Aug 2021 12:21 pm

Hello all,

I am new to this forum and thought i would join so i can interact with fellow PM's and share my experiences, knowledge and also lean on the community for ideas when stuck as everyday i think should be a school day! :)

Currently i am working on a project where initially the timelines being worked towards and published to the sponsor / senior teams was 12 months for delivery. This was always on a caveat that until we complete a thorough discovery phase could change for better or worse.............unfortunately its worse and what originally was a 12 month project, in reality actually looks like at least a 24 month programme requiring far more resource and potentially new headcount to support the solution when transitioned to BAU.

For a brief bit of history a first phase of this project i completed a few years ago and this was a painful experience being my first real project and did not have the skills or knowledge to effectively govern this as needed. Fast forward a few years now I am far more versed in this and have learnt so much in this time, but currently feeling anxious and confused on the best way to approach articulating this to the sponsor now and the message that the timelines are far greater then expected along with all of the resource challenges. I have spent some time with the 3rd party vendor who's solution we will be implementing to get some guidance and advice which helped, but i still need to put tis in a constructive and effective method to update the sponsor and ultimately drive the programme in the direction needed. I think underlying I'm worried about how they will view my capabilities and ability to manage the project and somehow feel I should have know all this from the start? The sponsor can be quite challenging so need to ensure I also challenge back in a professional way with solid information.

Has anyone had this experience before and managed to navigate through this? Any advice much appreciated

Kind regards
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