Do you know how to solve a Rubik’s Cube?  If not, click the link in the previous sentence and take a quick look. 

Ready?

Okay, now look at the picture of the cube on the right.  Does it look as messed up as the project you’re working on?  And yet both are solvable, and in remarkably similar ways.

Get To A Known Good State
The first step is to go from utter chaos to something that looks more familiar.  For the cube, some use a 2x2x2 corner, others use a cross.  On projects, some developers fill in unit test gaps, others automate the build process.

Have A Logical Progression of States
After you get to a known good state, there will be a next step.  And a next.  And probably several other states before reaching completion.  The way in which the cube is scrambled has no effect on the order in which it will be solved, it simply affects the work that must be done to get to each state.  Likewise, every project is troubled in it’s own special way — although there are certainly recurring anti-patterns — but you’ll still help move it through the same states.

Know The End State
It’s easy to know when you’re done solving the Rubik’s Cube and that’s one of the reasons that solving it using different techniques from different starting points is still a repeatable process.  Conversely, many projects fail because the people working on them don’t have a clear definition of what it means to be done.

So take a moment to step back from what appears to be a jumbled mess and decide what state it needs to be in next — regardless of what it takes to get there.  Then the next state and the next, all the way up to a clear end state.  Once you know how things should look along the way, it’s a lot more clear what you need to do to get there.