De-risk Deploy Deliver

If you are hired as an architect on a project that is not running quite as smooth as it should, there are two things you can do.

You can change everything. You can go all out on process and methodology and architecture. You can lay off project members, you can hire others.

Or

You can fallback to the three d's: De-risk, Deploy, Deliver. Identify the risks in the project, fix them one by one. Establish a build/deploy rhythm, every week, every 2 weeks, pick something, stick to it. Make sure you start showing it to the customer, be honest about what works and what you are still working on.

The latter keeps things simple, it proves you are capable of shipping and it builds confidence. The smart people, the ones that love to ship, will stick on the project, others will leave. Once you establish the rhythm and the team starts to take it responsibility for delivering, there is time to improve on other things.