Project management is the key to sticking to your budget and deadline, whilst keeping the most important tasks at the forefront of your company. Without it, you leave the future of your business at the mercy of your teams and employees
10 Common Project Management Pain Points
We understand all project management challenges that the managers are facing. An organisation will face numerous challenges when using project management. These challenges will increase/decrease in severity dependent upon an organisation’s set up. Let us look into the 10 common project management challenges:
- Keeping Teams on The Same Page
- Poorly Defining the Goals and Objectives
- Unrealistic Deadlines
- Finding the Right Project Management Software
- Scope Creep is Insidious and Creepy
- Insufficient Team Skills
- Miscommunication Cause Conflicts
- Risk Management
- Challenges of Teamwork
- Lack of Accountability
Are you facing some of the challenges as well? We are sure you do.
Effective Project Management: How to Run A Project Smoothly and Effectively?
Project management plays a crucial role in enabling companies to transform business and execute strategy effectively. Let us look into the key elements that would make projects run smoothly regardless of business size and industry.
- Facilitate Effective Communication
Communication is the key to every success. Communication among the project team must stay consistent. Emails, meetings, status reports, project plans are all just tools for facilitating effective communication. As project managers, we must work to keep those lines of communication open to ensure we have all the details to report back to executives and stakeholders.
- Manage Expectations with Your Project Stakeholders
The last thing you want to do is surprise your project stakeholders. Instead, be proactive by warning them beforehand about a situation or challenge that may have occurred. It is better to let them know of the possible consequences and present your plan of action moving forward to rectify the problem.
- Control the Process and the Language
Projects spin out of control because of (no surprise here) a lack of control. Failure to understand the process leads to chaos. A failure to understand why the process is in place leads to a lack of conformity. And a key element of any process is the language that is used. If we control the language, we have a better chance of controlling the culture of our projects.
- Listen First
There are many levels of listening, the most ideal coming from a place of empathy, genuineness, and mindful presence. A great project manager listens to stakeholders, product owners, and teammates free from his or her own personal views. Take cues from the speaker’s tone and body language, and help the speaker move through what he or she is expressing. Do not be too eager to speak or interrupt. Listen to what others have to say first.
- Be Transparent
It is important and crucial to maximize transparency and doesn’t use information as a means of control. Good project managers communicate clearly, completely, and concisely, all the while giving others real information without fear of what they’ll do with it. There should not have any secrets or hiding of information among the team.
- Sort Out Problems Early
When an issue occurs, the project lead or the members must ensure that they are open to sort the problems fast and effectively. Do not wait or procrastinate any longer! A simple but routine project control cycle enables you to sort out problems early, before they get out of hand. It also builds and maintains commitment from within the team and improves communication.
- Create a Schedule Template for Your Clients
When you’re setting the date to meet your objective, sub-deadlines, and milestones, be sure to include client tasks and delivery dates. The client must also understand they are accountable for keeping the project on track and will need to approve subtasks and other duties on time. Develop a schedule template to share with them that shows each task, when it’s due, and who is responsible for its completion.
- Track Your Team’s Time
Time is precious! Thus, many people do not like to feel that their time is being wasted. Less than half of in-house agencies track their time. Due to this, it’s hard to establish accurate estimates for knowing how long a project will take or how many resource hours you’ll need. By tracking your team’s time for the project, you’ll have a solid estimate on the average time specific tasks take. You’ll know how much time projects took in the past, and you’ll be able to use that information to gauge the average speed of each team member for each project.
Are you ready to take your projects to a greater height?
Sources:
The 5 Project Management Steps To Run Every Project Perfectly
