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PMTimes_Oct2_2024

Best Of: The 10 Most Common Project Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

If you find yourself repeatedly failing to meet essential project deadlines or KPI’s, you might be making one, or more, of these very common project management mistakes.

 

Making an error in the workplace is inevitable. In fact, there’s a high probability many of us have made the same mistakes, and while at the time it can feel like an utter disaster it is the ability to recoup and learn from our failures that ultimately makes us better at our jobs.

Unfortunately, as project managers, even our smallest mistakes can have much larger implications further down the line, sending us over budget and past deadlines. Although each project will have its complex set of issues unique to it alone, across the industry there are some predictable and recurring factors we can address, that often doom a project to failure before it is gotten off the ground.

 

1. Assigning the Wrong Person to Lead the Project

Too often candidates are determined to lead projects due to factors other than their suitability or experience. Not that a lack of workplace experience cannot be made up of other factors, but taking charge of running a project is a difficult task, and often requires specific experiential skills or knowledge.

While it is true that skilled managers can lead across subject matters, for large scale projects with complex attributes, a greater number of team members, or a targeted technical knowledge requirement, it is much better to source the most experienced leader, rather than just the one who’s available.

Place as large a focus on assigning the correct manager for the job as you usually do to allocate resources, and place a higher priority on choosing a manager whose skill set more closely matches the project requirements.

 

2. Lack of Communication

Communication is essential in every relationship, but never more so than when between you and your project team. Not communicating properly, or at all, with your team and client, is one of the quickest ways to send your project to the grave.

By creating a culture of open communication, and setting out some simple communication strategies from the outset, such as regular check-ins and deliverable reviews, you and your team will have a clear view on your projects progression, and be able to proactively spot and resolve any issues coming up on the horizon.

Similarly, by engaging better with your team, you can keep your client in the loop with real-time project updates and avoid the awkward due date deliverable talk.

 

3. Mismanaging Team Members Skillsets

As important as it is to choose the right leader for the project, it is equally as important to choose the right team members and to take the time to understand exactly how their particular skillsets will fit into the larger scope of your project.

An excellent project manager analyses the project needs and utilizes his team in agreement with their strongest attributes.

If you do not have the luxury of handpicking a team to suit the project, then be sure to you sit down with your team before you begin and discuss their experience and competencies. Don’t be afraid to get specific. It is not enough to just know one of your team members has experience in web developing, filter out their specific disciplinary strengths and weaknesses and optimize their workload accordingly.

 

4. Too Broad a Scope

Anyone who’s been in the business long enough has experienced a project with a scope that appears to increase continually, while the price remains stagnant. Although this kind of scope creep where the project focus changes continuously over the length of the project should be in no way viewed as an inevitable part of the project process.

Scope creep often happens when the real outcome of the project is misunderstood by or is not consistent with the client, management, and the project team. This is why developing a clear scope statement at the outset of your project is so important.

A carefully thought out scope statement should include a clear and firm definition of the project goal, deliverables, what is both “in” and “out” of scope, and project constraints. Simultaneously, you must develop a system of strict, universal and well-documented approval processes so that any subsequent changes to scope, budget, schedule, resources, and risk are vetted and approved.

The scope statement should regularly be referred to for making future project decisions, and outlining a shared understanding of the project, and should never be created in isolation, but instead with the input of your entire team. Not only will they have knowledge, experience and valuable insights, but they will then be more aware of how and when to implement the process throughout the project

While it is true that project scope must have some degree of malleability placing checks and balances against changing any aspect of the scope allows you to make more considered decisions and control of rampant scope creep.

 

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5. Over-Optimistic Scheduling

The importance of creating a realistic schedule for your team, and the project, cannot be understated.

It is too easy to create an over-optimistic schedule designed to impress the client but is completely infeasible. Not only is the probability of finishing the project with an acceptable, quality product very unlikely, but attempts to meet these dates will cause unnecessary stress for both you and your team, schedules to slip and throw your whole project out of whack.

The project schedule directs the project team on the what and when of their actions. For your client, it projects significant milestones and the due date of key deliverables, as such, it is important that you treat the creation of your schedule as a collaborative effort.

By checking in with your team on project effort and time estimates, and your clients own schedule, you can strike a compromise by which to meet your client’s expectations, and your team has the breathing room to finish the project to a high quality.

 

6. Lack of Detail in the Project Plan

A project plan is one of the essential elements of a successful project outcome, yet the most misunderstood when it comes to project management.

A project plan does not just mean ‘project timeline.’ While an expected chronology of your project is a major component of your plan, a project plan requires a much deeper level of information regarding all elements necessary to the planning process from the specification of the new project to the budget, schedule, and quality metrics.

When done correctly, a project plan acts your very own route planner. By providing insufficient detail in your project plan, you are not only opening your team for confusion about the full requirements of their time or tasks but leaving yourself without clearly defined metrics to measure the success of your project and management strategies.

Take the time before you start your project to identify all the activities and related tasks required to meet the project’s scope statement successfully and all your project deliverables including the estimated time duration and the assignment of a resource that will be held responsible for completing each task. Keep in mind, that the plan you make at the start may not be the one you finish with, but learning to create a clear project plan and knowing how to discuss its key components is crucial to your project’s success.

 

7. Not Recognizing Your Team’s Successes

Team morale and productivity go hand in hand, and refusing to recognize your team’s successes, often has a detrimental effect on both. Sometimes it is too easy to focus on the end game, metrics, and numbers, and forget the employee that pushed them to success.

The small successes, the short-term objectives, and daily goals, any extra effort to contribute to advancing the team’s mission is, where the individual shines, and should be celebrated.

Develop a performance review system as part of your project management plan, and ensure that performance on projects is measured, reviewed and recognized as equally as it is in their day to day responsibilities.

 

8. The Wrong Project Structure Used

Project management is not one size fits all, and while you may have had great success with a particular project structure before, it is dangerous to get too comfortable with one approach and ignore each project’s variables.

Let’s take size, project teams with a larger number of individuals, around 8 or above, will find it difficult to report to the same project manager. Just as, you, the project manager will find it overly challenging to maintain communication and follow ups with too many team members reporting directly to you. If parts of the project are undertaken in different regions of the country, communications may suffer from a lack of clarity and jar with the larger project structure.

It is key to assess each project individually and adapt communication strategies and reporting protocols to suit each new approach.

It may be useful to educate yourself and your team in umbrella project management methodologies that teach adaptable, industry standard project structures, so each project structure retains an efficient cohesiveness and familiarity.

 

9. Being Reactive Instead of Proactive

Your project is running correctly, aligning with your scope and project plan, but then something unexpected comes along and disaster hits. The project gets derailed. Even though you and your team mobilize quickly, identifying the best options and solutions based on experience, you have got no opportunity, nor time, to test these solutions viability. Acting reactively, management by crisis only leaves your project vulnerable to further failure.

Risk Management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to risk factors throughout the life of a project, and developing a stable basis for decision making in regards to those risks. A robust risk assessment provides controls for possible future events and is proactive rather than reactive.

While it is impossible to know every likelihood of every potential occurrence, by undertaking a thorough risk assessment before you execute your project plan, and continuously re-focusing that assessment throughout your project, you can reduce the likelihood of a disastrous event occurring, as well as its impact.

 

10. Being Resistant to Change

Although most this article has been spent pontificating about the importance of preparedness, clarity, and structure, the ability to be flexible and adaptive are qualities intrinsic to your project’s success.

Despite your extensive risk management and project planning, it’s likely the functionality of your project is going to change daily, whether it’s the small things such as missed meetings, employee absence, or a change in direction that requires you to develop a new approach or resource, and being rigid about your processes only ensures that your project is unlikely to see completion.

Being flexible isn’t something you can plan for. Remember that your project is an ongoing process, keep an open mind, and trust that you and your team will be competent enough to come up with a suitable solution.

PMTimes_Aug27_2024

Best of: How to Successfully Balance the Project Management Triangle

A project manager has to deal with many concerns simultaneously for project success.

The Project Management Triangle is associated with three major factors that affect the results of a project.

 

Three Points Of A Project Management Triangle Include:

  • Cost
  • Scope
  • Time

 

These Three Constraints Are Interrelated. Let’s See How:

Let’s say your client asks you to expand the scope of a current project you are working on. Now, when the scope will expand, the time taken to complete the project as well as the cost incurred will also change. That is why the interdependence between these three factors makes them a project management triangle.

Creating a balance among these three constraints becomes very important for a project manager in order to deliver a quality product.

If we look at the following picture, you can see that quality is placed in the middle of the triangle while time, cost and scope are placed at the ends. It indicates that quality is a factor that cannot be compromised with or negotiated with, whereas time, cost and scope are negotiable or subject to change.

 

Why Is it Important to Manage This Project Management Triangle in a balanced way?

The three constraints of project management software have to be kept in mind from the very beginning of a project. Taking care of these helps the project managers adapt to the changing requirements of a project without affecting cost and the time taken.

This triangle of project management finds its reference in Agile methodology.

An agile methodology is an approach to project management which is based on the basic belief that changes are bound to occur in the way of software development or project completion. Any unforeseen situation during the project lifecycle can demand changes and adapting to these changes successfully ensures project success.

While the traditional methods of project management which are not flexible and do not adopt changes can result in failed projects.

When you are prepared to manage any unforeseen changes, the final output of a product is not jeopardized.

Let us have a detailed understanding of the project management triangle and how changes in any one of its constraints can affect the entire project.

 

Terms Related to the Project Management Triangle:

Scope

By scope, we mean all the work that has to be completed and all the services that have to be provided in a project. The entire spectrum of tasks is involved in it.

Now, an addition in the scope i.e. the amount of work would mean an extension of time required as well as the money spent on a project. Also, an addition to the functionalities would also require more resources which you might not have thought about at the time of planning.

 The hiring of more resources for this project puts the project manager in a tight spot as the expenses as well as the development process lengthens up.

Time

Time is one of the vertices of a project management triangle and plays a major role in deciding the success and failure of projects. Generally, at the beginning of a project, clients ask the question- how much time it will take to complete the project and what would be the exact cost?

Now, answering this question can be a little difficult for a project manager. A proper estimation of all other factors (resources, the type of project, potential bottlenecks etc.) becomes important to calculate time.

Cost

Cost is of paramount importance and if gone beyond the estimation can lead to a serious failure of a project.

Generally, cost is calculated for clients using the following formula

Service hours(h) * Rate per hour($ )= cost($)

Change requests or requests to add functionality can severely affect the cost of a project.

 

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How to Strike a Balance in the Project Management Triangle?

Source: https://appinventiv.com/blog/how-to-balance-project-management-triangle/

Here are the approaches that project managers can use to strike a balance between the constraints of a project management solution.

Use a Project Management Software

A project management solution becomes a medium to make better time estimations, better cost estimations as well as defining the scope becomes easier.

Let’s understand in some detail.

Basically, project management solutions like BrightWork, ProofHub, Asana, Wrike etc. become a central place where you can plan, collaborate, discuss and get reports on your projects. Your entire team can contribute to project progress and give useful input without even the need to call meetings every time.

 

How a Project Management Tool Helps in Balancing the PM Triangle.

  • It helps in planning your projects in a visual way using tools like a Gantt chart. You can keep all the project tasks against a timeline and see how much time each task will take. When all tasks are laid out in a timeline form, you can very well decide the resources required and the budget needed. Once clear on these parameters, you can communicate the same to the clients and also keep them in loop to maintain transparency.
  • Apart from this, you can see bottlenecks or problem areas of your project while the project is in progress. All your tasks can be placed in the form of a board and you can see your tasks moving through various stages in real-time. This helps you ensure that you are not running behind the decided timeline so that the project does not get overdue.
  • The readymade templates of project management software can help you plan your projects quickly without the need to start from scratch.
  • Collaboration becomes effortless and clarity on roles and responsibilities is maintained.
  • You can make changes in the schedule easily on a Gantt chart and everyone will be updated.
  • Managers can get clear visibility into the workload of individual team members and make appropriate decisions.

 

Conclusion

Effective planning, clear visibility into the processes, the ability to make adjustments on the go can act as the hallmarks of maintaining a stable relationship among different constraints of project management.

Communication is yet another important factor that lets your projects not slip out of hands. When an effortless and effective communication is maintained among team members and managers at all times, the efficiency increases manifold and projects can be completed successfully within decided time frame and budget.

PMTimes_Jan2_2024

Best of PMTimes: The Greatest Challenges When Managing a Project

What do you find to be the hardest part of managing a project? I bet if you asked ten different project managers that question you would get at least six or seven different answers.

 

I believe that many on the outside of project management looking in probably think it is easy. Be organized and you’ve got it made, right? I wish it was that easy but then again if that was all there was to it I guess the pay would be considerably less than it is and we’d all miss the challenge.

No, project management about much more than just being organized but you already know that. What do you find to be the most difficult aspects of the daily project management grind? For me, and from what I’ve perceived from many of my colleagues, it comes down to a fairly common list of about five things, depending on the types and sizes of projects and the clients we are dealing with, of course. There are always those variances. Let’s consider these five items.

 

The project budget.

The project budget has to be on here, likely always #1 or #2 on every project. 95% of the population has problems managing their own money! That doesn’t make them that much better at managing someone else’s!

The project budget is always a challenge. Unlike your own budget where it’s only you or a few people spending, for a project budget, you may have 87 different people, places or things charging to it. The project budget status can go from healthy to dire straits overnight as charges come through accounting and hit your project and now you must go figure out why.

Staying on top of the budget every week by updating the budget forecast with actual charges from the week before and re-forecasting it for the remainder of the project is one way to combat those budget surprises. Perhaps the only way. And, by doing this you can just about guarantee that it doesn’t go more than 10% out of control vs. the 50% overage that an unchecked budget can quickly realize. The 10% overage is a fairly reasonable/easy fix. You may never recover from the 50% overage.

 

Scope management / change control.

Scope management and change control are two of those two-word phrases that are basically like four-letter words in the world of project management. Scope management is always a challenge for the project manager and project team because some things are close calls on whether they are in or out of scope. Plus, we aren’t always thinking in terms of “scope” when we are plugging through the work or fixing issues. And change control results in those ugly change orders for which customers have to pay extra, and that’s always a fun thing for the PM to bring to the project sponsor’s attention to obtain approval.

 

Resolving team conflicts.

Some people actually thrive on conflict. Not me. I’d prefer that we all just get along and do our jobs. That’s why I like project management better than, say, managing a team of application developers who report directly to me. I’ve done that; I’ve had staff at several different organizations where I’ve worked. Resolving conflicts, personnel issues, giving performance reviews – these are a few of my least favorite things.

 

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Pleasing everyone with the status report.

You can please some of the people all of the time. You can please all of the people some of the time. But you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Is this true? With status reporting it seems to be the case. But if you want to maintain your sanity and have time to manage your other projects and job requirements, it is in your best interest to find a status report format that works for everyone. By everyone I mean all stakeholders who care to hold your status report in their hands and a few who don’t care but you want them to care.

Create a usable and informative dashboard for everyone – especially for the project sponsor’s and senior management’s viewing pleasure. For your senior management, a few of the key stakeholders, and possibly some high-level players on the customer side, this may be all they ever want to see. It can be some high-level percentages or possibly a green-yellow-red stoplight approach to reporting the timeline, tasks, and budget health. Beyond that you want the weekly detail that goes into any good status report. This status report should drive the weekly team and client meetings. You will want to report on completed tasks, what’s happening now, what’s coming up soon and all outstanding issues and change orders.

The status report can be painful and a huge weekly chore on your to-do list, but if you can figure out how to create a one-size-fits-all approach to status reporting on your project, you’ll save time and effort overall by not creating several different reports trying to please everyone on your project routing list.

 

Getting all detailed requirements documented.

This one can be a real headache. Why? Because it seems that no matter how hard you try, no matter how many eyes are on it, no matter how many experts are involved and no matter how much your project client participates and insists “that’s it”, you’ll eventually find that something was overlooked.

It’s ok because the fault usually lies with the project customer and they end up paying for the extra work and time in the form of a change order. Still, customers don’t like change orders, and it usually means some painful re-work. It would be nice always to get it right the first time. But that’s almost never the case.

 

Call for input

Project management is challenging. Period. Some parts are harder than others. Some we master. Some we never really get used to or we seem to at least always make them hard. I wish I had a magic formula or all the time in the world on every project so that we could do everything well and everything right, but that is never the case. We always need to cut corners somewhere, and that doesn’t make most of these challenges easier…only harder.

How about our readers? What are your biggest challenges or least favorite activities associated with managing projects? What have you found to be your most troubling parts of managing a project?

 

Published on: 2016/04/05
PMTimes_May16_2023

Best of PMTimes: The Five Goals of a Project Manager

As a project manager, you need to manage people, money, suppliers, equipment—the list is never ending. The trick is to be focused. Set yourself five personal goals to achieve. If you can meet these simple goals for each project, then you will achieve total success.

These goals are generic to all industries and all types of projects. Regardless of your level of experience in project management, set these five goals for every project you manage.

 

Goal 1: To Finish on Time

This is the oldest but trickiest goal in the book. It’s the most difficult because the requirements often change during the project and the schedule was probably optimistic in the first place.

To succeed, you need to manage your scope very carefully. Implement a change control process so that any changes to the scope are properly managed.

Always keep your plan up to date, recording actual vs. planned progress. Identify any deviations from plan and fix them quickly.

 

Goal 2: To Finish Under Budget

To make sure that your project costs don’t spiral, you need to set a project budget at the start to compare against. Include in this budget, all the types of project costs that will accrue, whether they are to do with people, equipment, suppliers or materials. Then work out how much each task in your plan is going to cost to complete and track any deviations from this plan.

Make sure that if you over-spend on some tasks, that you under-spend on others. In this way, you can control your spend and deliver under budget.

 

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Goal 3: To Meet the Requirements

The goal here is to meet the requirements that were set for the project at the start. Whether the requirements were to install a new IT system, build a bridge or implement new processes, your project needs to produce solutions which meet these requirements 100%.

The trick here is to make sure that you have a detailed enough set of requirements at the beginning. If they are ambiguous in any way, then what was initially seen as a small piece of work could become huge, taking up valuable time and resources to complete.

 

Goal 4: To Keep Customers Happy

You could finish your project on time, under budget and have met 100% of the requirements—but still have unhappy customers. This is usually because their expectations have changed since the project started and have not been properly managed.

To ensure that your project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders are happy at the end of your project, you need to manage their expectations carefully. Make sure you always keep them properly informed of progress. “Keep it real” by giving them a crystal clear view of progress to date. Let them voice their concerns or ideas regularly. Tell them upfront when you can’t deliver on time, or when a change needs to be made. Openness and honesty are always the best tools for setting customer expectations.

 

Goal 5: To Ensure a Happy Team

If you can do all of this with a happy team, then you’ll be more than willing to do it all again for the next project. And that’s how your staff will feel also. Staff satisfaction is critical to your project’s success.

So keep your team happy by rewarding and recognizing them for their successes. Assign them work that complements their strengths and conduct team building exercises to boost morale. With a happy motivated team, you can achieve anything!

And there you have it. The five goals you need to set yourself for every project.

Of course, you should always work smart to achieve these goals more easily.

 

Published on May 12, 2010.
PMTimes_Dec28_2022

Best of: How to Write a Proper Project Management Plan?

You have a big project and you know that the basis of successfully executing lies in the project management plan.

 

The pressure is rising. But there is no need for you to get overwhelmed because all you need is some guidance on how to write the project management plan.

Writing a project management plan will help you present important elements such as goals, objectives, timelines, and so on. If you know how to put those ideas and plans in writing effectively, you’ll be able to have everyone on your side in no time. To speed things up, these tips on how to write a proper project management plan will save you from stressing about how your plan will turn out. Let’s get started!

 

Identify Clients’ Needs and Expectations

Clients are the ones who need to accept your plan and see potential in it. Instead of writing and rewriting the plan numerous times, talk to the clients at the very beginning.

Discuss with them their goals, ideas, the value of the project, expectations, budget, timeline, etc. Ask anything that will help you determine what they want.

Having this information clearly defined from the very start will instantly give you pointers on what you need to focus on and in which direction your planning should go.

Write everything they say and prepare a basis for your plan. Use a Scope Statement Document to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

 

Set Out Goals

Based on research, the executive leaders claim that a lack of clear goals accounts for 37% of project failure.

Clear goals help you plan out deadlines, requirements, and tasks that need to be fulfilled.

There is an organizational goal-setting tool used by Google and Intel. It is called Objective & Key Results (OKRs). This goal setting technique can help you identify and set your goals.

You can create a project plan board for your goals to have an overview of your ideas and how the process should go to meet the planned goals.

What is important during the goal-setting phase is that you also prioritize them. If you don’t prioritize the goals it will affect the project process.

Discuss Your Plan with Your Team

Every project consists of a team of people who will be designated to execute that plan. Those people are just as important as the project manager.

Get in touch with your team and express your ideas and goals. Ask them about the timeline, whether they find it manageable. Consider their ideas and suggestion.

In this way, you’ll look at your plan more objectively. If your team agrees with your ideas, you’ll know that you can look forward to successful cooperation.

 

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Create a Schedule

A project schedule can sometimes be the toughest for project managers to determine. The reason why is that you need to calculate how much time each task demands in order to determine the final deadline.

You need to think about deadlines within the project as well as the final deadline. Setting just the final deadline will give you too much space to improvise during the project execution and that is not advisable.

Creating a clear schedule will also make the project more manageable and give the team a better structure and organization.

If you want to visualize your schedule, try out the Gantt chart tool. Those who are visual learners can have a better understanding of the project’s organization if they can see and follow up on the timeline.

 

Set Milestones

Firm milestones are a must for a successful project. They need to be in line with the timeline.

Every team member should know their timeline and milestone because the work they do affects whether the project will be developed according to plan.

Stating milestones in advance will help you show the clients that you have a specific plan in mind. It will also help your team members understand their duties and obligations.

These project planning steps will help you meet the goals as well as meet the set deadlines.

Not to mention that milestones make it easier for the project manager to keep track of the project process.

 

Identify Potential Risks

As much as we would all like that everything goes according to plan, you should still understand that no plan is risk-free.

Write down all potential risks and issues that can affect the project execution. For example, an employee getting sick and not being able to work.

Why is identifying risk so important? Because it gives you the time to think about solutions in advance and prepare yourself for some other options.

You need to think about steps that help you to prevent those risks as well as to manage them if they do happen.

 

Outline the Project

Before you start writing the final plan, it is better that you write the outline first. Having all this information about the planning process can be confusing, so it is normal that you go back and forth and make some changes.

However, it is better that you correct the outline than the final plan.

It is very helpful to have some guidelines before you start with the plan.

 

Write and Present the Plan

Once you’ve finished all the previous steps it is time to get to writing. You’ll realize how setting out all the important elements of the project and outlining the plan will help you to write the plan easily.

When you’re all done with the writing and you feel confident about your planning and writing skills, it is time to present the plan and get that approval that you deserve! Good luck!

 

Published on: February 26, 2020