It is unfortunate that companies need to spend millions of dollars every year and still struggle to tackle the project management challenges. This hurts the companies because they already have access to plenty of resources, project management tools, training materials, and flexible methodologies.
According to a study published in the Harvard Business Review, one in every six projects costs more than 200% of the estimated amount. Also, around 70% of IT projects get delayed due to some reason or the other. As a project manager, it is your job to prevent that even when there are challenges.
In this blog, I will discuss 7 most common problems project managers face in their work and how they can deal with them effectively.
1. Lack of communication:
The success of a project depends greatly on the level of communication the people involved in the project have. You need to have transparent methods of communication on a regular basis to make sure that all the stakeholders are still invested in the project. While effective communication can smooth things up for the project managers, any form of miscommunication can be dangerous for project teams as it affects their teamwork.
How to deal with this problem?
You will be surprised to know that there are plenty of collaborative and project management assignment help tools available in the market that ensure that everyone involved in a project stays updated. Such collaborative software not only simplifies the duties of the project managers but also offers better transparency in the project as well as accountability within the team.
Also, it will be better if you can conduct regular, short stand-up meetings several times a week. This will help eliminate the chances of having miscommunication.
2. Scope creep:
Scope creep is an inevitable phenomenon for any given project. It occurs when the scope of the project changes and the project work starts to extend (or creep) beyond what was estimated initially. While such occurrences can be beneficial at times, they outweigh the pros in most cases. It is common for projects where the clients themselves do not clarify their requirements and seek something vague.
How to deal with such a problem?
Engaging with the clients during the planning phase will help you get a better understanding of their exact requirements and expectations. Also, proper planning of your resource and talent usage will help you achieve success. Moreover, do not take up ad-hoc change requests during project execution as such decisions can cause delays and additional expenses. It is wiser to stick to the original plan.
3. Lack of clarity regarding goals and success criteria:
In order to complete a project successfully, you need clarity. A lack of it can create different project management problems. A significant number of projects fail because there is a lack of planning and a clearly defined goal. As a project manager, you should be able to quantify project progress by setting up milestones and quality tests. Moreover, having a clear set of objectives will allow project managers to defend their vision in front of the clients as well as the upper management.
How to tackle such a problem?
You need to adopt some effective approaches to goal setting (such as CLEAR and SMART) in order to come up with effective goals from the beginning of your project. This may also allow you to overcome the barriers of project management. Moreover, you need to keep in mind that not having clearly defined goals is a huge mistake. So, once you set the goals for your project team, make them clear to your teammates.
4. Budgeting problems:
There is no denying that financial issues are one of the biggest challenges faced in the field of project management. While there are several cost-management measures that can help a manager avoid such complications, a manager also needs to make sure that the measures do deliver better and quicker results.
How to deal with such a problem?
You will have to adopt a proper budgeting procedure and make it practical in order to avoid cost overruns. Keep the budget in mind whenever you plan the scope of any project. Otherwise, the budget limitations may hamper the possibility of success of a poorly-budgeted project. Plan a budget, document it, and develop your project accordingly.
5. A lack of skilled team members:
The skill levels of the individual team members have a significant impact on the success of a project. Your job as a project manager should be to create the ideal environment for the members to work. In case some members of the team do not have the necessary skills to deal with the problem at hand, your project may fail miserably. You need proper experience and foresight to tackle such a challenge.
How to deal with it?
A good project manager always pre-determines the project management skills and competencies needed for a particular project and then assesses the available workforce to see if any additional staff or skillsets are needed or not. The idea is to deal with the needs of the project and the resources needed to accomplish it. Needless to say, the human skill component is one of the biggest resources you need to manage.
6. A lack of accountability:
The performance of a project management team improves significantly when every member of the team feels responsible and tries to fulfil the role assigned to them. If the team members lack a sense of accountability, the entire project suffers.
How to deal with such a problem?
As a project manager, your job will be to assign responsibilities to your team members and direct them toward the common goal of finishing the project successfully. You should consider using project management tools that allow you to assign responsibilities to your team members and track them. This will help you foster accountability among your team members. Also, check in with the team regularly to develop a better relationship with them.
7. Inadequate risk management:
As a project manager, it is essential that you identify the potential “what if” scenarios and prepare the necessary contingency plans. In most cases, projects do not go as planned since there are so many variables, creating different possibilities. So, you need to be prepared for almost everything.
How to deal with such a problem?
As mentioned, you need to be prepared with alternate plans for all kinds of situations. While doing so, make sure the team is able to adopt the alternate plans in which things start to go in a different direction. With a proper risk management system, you can not only identify the different types of risks but can also mitigate them. It is important that you have contingency plans.
Conclusion
Obviously, there are plenty more challenges in project management that you will have to face throughout your career as a project manager. However, if you can tackle these common problems effectively, other challenges will start to look a lot simpler to you.
