Symptoms of runaway projects include:

• Project seems to consume more and more resources with no clear progress
• The project team continually delivers optimistic progress reports that appear too good to be true
• Key milestones are slipping
• Project functionality is being reduced

Following the steps above, a Project Assessment will help you gain control of runaway projects. The assessment should provide a diagnosis of the health of the project and identify where problems lie. Next, it will focus on issues that could be "show stoppers." If management reviews the "show stoppers" and wants to continue, the assessment will continue to analyze elements of the project that are correctible.

Source: Transition Partners' Project Assessment 2006.