Sometimes it all starts with an otherwise innocuous “It’s a funny thing, actually…” Behind this tiny and inconspicuous façade, there can be a whole new dimension of obstacles, challenges, unexpected turns and twists that can make you change the whole direction of a project or even secretly wish you had never even started. It will be just as funny as “all our vendors have gone insolvent simultaneously – including all the power stations in the vicinity of 500 kilometers”. If the thing in question is not funny but rather “interesting” instead, duck and cover. It. Can. Be. Literally. Anything.

Once your project is all setup and on the fast track to becoming a successful one, fully equipped with templates, master documents and other nifty short-cuts, beware of the well-meant “I just wanted to let you know that I’ve enhanced your budget template” – as you indubitably know where good intentions lead. Even if you have already moved to SharePoint or another cloud product, you will need a strong coffee while repairing the broken document and retrieving and repairing data. If you still work locally – angels will cry looking upon you. In any case, you will have to conduct some really boring discussions and enforce communication on the basics of hygiene in collaboration.

If everything develops well – and especially if not – prepare for the next Jack-in-the-box from hell: “Why don’t we marginally, just a little bit, increase the scope?” The just a little bit increased scope swiftly becomes a steep slippery slope that brings you to where the Jack-in-the-box came from in the first place. The scope discussion is a magnificent telltale to expect “Let’s have a chat about our budget…” Depending on who the invitation for a chat comes from, there will be several possible horror scenarios. If you are being addressed by a budget controller, prepare for the budget to be already in the “overspent” territory so that now you might be tempted to embark on all sorts of illegal side hustles to find the means to finish the project. If it is your project sponsor who is willing to chat about the budget, it might already have been cut to the bone beyond recognition. As trouble never comes alone, the next in line will be either “We need to reconsider the timeline” or “There is some impact on the overall resources”. Especially in the case where all the dimensions of the project have been impacted, sooner or later, but just as certain as the executioner’s sword, there will be the ominous “We have to get our priorities straight”, and this time it might be you as a project manager saying it. This means that under the current set-up, something must let go and a major decision needs to be taken with a respective impact on either time, budget, resources or scope.

All decisions and open discussions are a great thing. However, sometimes you would hear “We have tried to solve that through a short chain of command….” Once you hear this, you can rest assured that not only was the try unsuccessful but more porcelain was broken on that short chain than a whole herd of elephants at the World Porcelain Expo would be able to, and the only reason you hear about this now is that the project or cooperation has reached a dead end and the hope is that you can somehow magically fix it now.

If you had the luck of experiencing more than five of the above-mentioned scenarios within your project – congratulations, you have won in this horror bingo. Once you talk about such a project, you might describe it as “All in all, it was a great learning experience” – with a coy smile on your lips and a demonic glimmer in your eyes.