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Only 29 percent of IT projects are completed successfully on time and on budget

over the past year, “Standish Group”.

Most of the project management mistakes boil down to either inadequate

planning or breakdowns the communication among the project teams or between

the project team and the project sponsors. These mistakes can be fatal.

Depending on your industry or project, a project management mistake isn’t as

serious. But, it can mean lost time, money, and trust. There are simple solutions

for the top mistakes project managers make.

So if you are wondering, how you could avoid future mishaps, you need to

pinpoint where your projects are going wrong and measures you can take to

improve them.

The upside of avoiding the following most common project management pitfalls is

tremendous. Not only will your project success rate increase, you'll also improve

satisfaction among internal customers. And who better to point out the most

common project management mistakes than project management vendors and

consultants like Orangescrum. These people also suggest ways to avoid them.

Contents:

1. Right Person Not Assigned to Manage the Project

2. Team not involved in the Project

3. Missing Key-(Performer)

4. Starting Too Many Projects

5. Communication Lapses

6. Allowing Scope Creep (Frequent Changes).

7. Aggressive Timelines.

8. Not Being Adaptive (Flexible).

9. Micromanaging Projects.

10. Too much dependency on Tools

11. Get your Metric for Defining Success.

12. Not on Schedules

13. Showing Stress

14. Too much process frustrates

15. Inability to meet/plan Accidents

1: Right Person Not Assigned to Manage the Project

In most cases, Project managers get picked based on availability, not necessarily on skill set.Typically during resource allocation, most of the effort is focused on finding the right resources other than finding the right project manager. Barely over half (56%) of project managers are certified. However, an inadequately trained and/or inexperienced project manager can kill a project. Projects can quickly grow out of control without a savvy and experienced project manager at the steering.

"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused

effort"Paul J. Meyer

Solution: Hire experienced project managers with certifications and the finesse required to manage stakeholders. Good project managers should have strong soft skills. They need to know how to facilitate meetings, manage risk and handle a variety of different stakeholders-the business people who are looking for functionality, the IT people who care about security, and the financial people who are worried about the budget.Choose a project manager whose skill set(s) match the

project requirements.

2: Team is involved; Not “Engaged”.

Often, projects are doomed to fail because they don't get enough support from the departments and people affected by and involved in the project. Either managers DON’T

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."Steve Jobs

State clearly the objective of the project

Define clear roles for everyone on the project

Outline the personal value-add upon successful project implementation

Tell how each person's contributions to the project would be evaluated.

And/or

Fail to generate a sense of urgency about the project, leading the team to think business as usual will be fine.

Improper collaboration among resources tops the list of most common project management mistakes. Not having team engagement on a project can kill it.

Solution: Kill the Ambiguity and Motivate. The project manager should start by calling the teams together (via the best technology available if remote) and deliver well defined project scope, project goal, schedule, key milestones and the roles and responsibilities. A well informed team is more likely to be inspired to collaborate and contribute most to the project success.

3: Missing Key-Man (The Leader):

The team always looks up to the Key-Man who owns the project from start to finish and be personally vested in its success. Just like a Commander less army, the war is never won, the project tends to fall apart without the Key Man.

33% of projects fail because of a lack of involvement from senior management. (Source: University of Ottawa)

Solution: Somebody at the higher levels of the organization needs to own the project from start to finish and be personally involved for its success.

4: Starting Too Many Projects:

Most managers think that they can get more done by starting all projects simultaneously, but in reality, it's counterproductive. Hurrying in projects eliminates the quality factor of the derivable and builds up stress among the employees. Multitasking slows people down, hurts quality. The delays caused by multitasking spill and multiply through the organization as people wait for others to finish prerequisite tasks.

Solution: To contain productivity losses, first step is to reduce work in progress (WIP) by 25-50 percent. This reduces the back and forth and makes managers and experts more responsive in dealing with issues and questions. Though counter-intuitive, reducing the number of open projects by 25-50 percent can double task completion rates.

5: Communication Lapses

Good communication is at the heart of any project. It’s a Critical Success Factor (CSF) for companies to align their business with technology to achieve high growth and profitability. Without regular and clear communication, the project falls apart.

Solution: Put quick and simple communication guidelines in place for your project like regular status check-ins, delivery reviews and team temperature checks. The team feels engaged and motivated.

Choose a meeting frequency (daily, weekly) that works for the team -- and stick with it. This helps keep everyone aligned to project scope and its goal.

“I'm a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they're interested in.” - Bill Gates

6: Allowing Scope Creep (Frequent Changes).

Businesses identified “capturing time/costs against projects” as their biggest project management challenge. (Source: The Access Group) Any project that doesn't have an ultra-clear goal is doomed. Frequent unplanned Scope change directly impacts and makes “The Project Triangle – Quality, Cost and Time” management difficult. Almost always it leads to cost and time overruns. Even slightest change in the schedule can choke the ongoing process. We let things slide and all of a sudden you’re over budget.

Solution: Monitor the project regularly; defining the scope of your project from the outset to avoid delays and deviation from the original scope. Track change requests separately from the original project scope, and provide estimates on how it will affect the schedule and cost -- and get explicit customer/stakeholder approval for each change. Communicate well with project sponsors and stakeholders to accommodate the changes with their nod.

7: Aggressive Timelines.

The intention is noble, as project managers often try to keep their clients happy. This happens, where project managers do not invest in truly understanding their teams’ work. But missing deadline after deadline will only lead to distrust and aggravation on the part of your client.

Solution: Managing time and managing it well is a given gospel for any manager. It's always better when the team's capability is properly mapped and funneled for optimum productivity. Granular view of the team’s availability allows you to stay ahead in case of contingencies. However, it's still important to add a buffer some extra time and money to your project, especially in the world of technology.

"Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed."- Peter Drucker

8: Not Being Adaptive (Flexible).

Organizational priorities are highly volatile and change disruptively in today’s world.And so do project scope and goals. As project managers, they have to adapt to that change and steer the project to completion. Being rigid about time, processes &people involved, communication style, or anything else that impacts the path of completion will ensure that your project in fact will never see light.

Solution: It's good to take a fresh look at the overall project, review how things have gone so far, and implement mid-way course correction if required. That doesn't mean you should constantly make changes. Don’t hesitate to listen to new information and suggestions.Keep an open mind, explore solutions with your team, and do what’s right for the project—not what is right for you.

Be friendly. Be yourself, and you will not only enjoy getting to know your team, you will enjoy being a part of it.

9: Micromanaging Projects.

It's very common for budding project managers to treat their job like an enforcer, policing the project team for progress and updates."Don't babysit," admonishes Michael Beck, senior marketing specialist, Optics Planet, an online retailer selling a variety of optics-related products.

“Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan.” — K. Tate

Solution: Educate and empower the team.Share the Communication plan with them and keep it updated at all times and follow it for the entire project duration. This is best done when managers sit with the team, evaluate, aid and advise on the go. Be a doer than an enforcer. This lets your team know that status updates and progress are expected from them weekly and will encourage them to vocalize any issues or delays in advance.

10: Too much dependency on Tools:

Tools are great! They do a lot of work for us. But if you’re relying heavily on those tools, you’re going to fail miserably. No functionality can replace the brainwork needed to come up with a plan, define a budget or visualize results. This is why you haven’t been replaced by a ‘Bot’ because you think critically, manage &identify risks and act clinically towards long term project success. You Assess, Plan and Implement!

Use tools to help you organize your thoughts and provide a quick means to reports.

Solution: Choose project management tools wisely -- something all members of the team will be comfortable using. Then make sure to train users properly and set up a system for tracking projects. Above all, don't let human capital be overshadowed by the glamour of software solutions.

Reliability, ease of use, and ease of integration are the top three requirements project managers look for when shopping for software.(Source: The Access Group)

11: Get your Metric for Defining Success.

You can't manage what you can't measure, as Peter Drucker would say. Nor can you coordinate resources or react to changes in scope, says HP's Cheney.

Solution: The very first thing a project manager should do is ensure he understands what the end users will consider a successful completion of the project. Ability to map and measure productivity is the key to successful project completion. Have a well-defined Governance Plan with detailed RACIs, Stakeholder mapping. Understanding what will make a project successful ensures that all parties walk away satisfied upon project completion.

12:Not on Schedule

One in six IT projects has a schedule overrun of 70%. (Source: Harvard Business Review) Here’s a scenario that happens all too often: project manager creates a schedule, shares it with the client (without mapping it), and locks it in. Project team members don't know what is due when, which makes completing theproject on time a challenge. Sometime later, the team sees the schedule and freak out by the lack of time available for task execution and meet project deadlines. Everyone ends up angry and stressed out while the project suffers.

Solution: -Share. Review. Validate! It’s easy putting a Communication Plan in place when you have determined all the activities involved in getting the project done (e.g. scoping, getting requirements, testing and implementing) and then attaching due dates to those activities based on the project plan. Project management software can also help create schedules.

13:Showing Stress.

Project management brings a whole lot of responsibility and challenges which inevitably bring stress. It’s easy to complain about the stress, act out on the stress, and let it affect your team when it really gets you. It is probably the worst thing you can do, because stress can run through your team and ruin morale and affect the work.

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another."-William James

Solution: -We don’t advise you to hold that stress in—that would be unhealthy. Take a small break. It’s best to keep that stress from your team and find one person who is not on your team to vent to. You can then make smart decisions on what to share with the team and focus on how to get things done.

14: Too much process frustrates.

Too much process in a project management tool cripples creativity and innovation. Fume Kondo, Managing Director of NYC-based consultancy Intellilink Solutions, once observed where the developer told the project manager that he could add extra features to an application with no additional effort. "My response would have been, “Go to the users and see if those features are useful,” says Kondo. "I see nothing wrong with over-delivering if it doesn't impact the budget or the schedule."

Solution: -Easy and simple processes enhance productivity. Project Manager must be clear about the scope and project goals. Choose processes that are apt for your project. Simplify your processes, your tools and how your team uses them.

15: Inability to accept Accidents-

Stuff happens, and we are alarmed by it. Consequently, the project goes off-track while attempts are on to clean up a mess one didn't anticipate.

Solution: Perform risk assessment and create a thorough Risk Management Plan as part of the project planning. Identify risks, anticipate impacts and build your contingency plan.

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