Five Project Management Mistakes

Have you ever attended an end-of-project meeting on a project that had major problems? If you have, chances are that one of the major themes you will hear is that “we should have spent more time planning.”

Five Project Management Mistakes

#1: Inadequate Planning

I have heard project managers say that the time they spend planning could be better spent actually "doing the work". This is not right. Before the project work begins, the project manager must make sure that the work is properly understood and agreed to by the project sponsor and key stakeholders. The larger the project, the more important it is that this information be defined formally and explicitly. When you think about it, many project problems can be traced to problems in planning. These include

• Poor estimates based on not understanding the totality of the work.
• Lack of scope change management because scope was not properly defined to begin with.
• Issues occurring because of poor risk management.
• Missing work because the schedule is not thought out.
• Not understanding all the stakeholders involved.

It should not be surprising, then, that the best way to avoid this problem is to do a good job of planning the project up-front. There are four main components to the planning process.

• Defining the work. You need to understand the nature of the project including objectives, scope, assumptions, risks, budget, timeline, organization and overall approach.
• Understanding the schedule. You should create a  project schedule before the project starts. This is needed to help you determine how to complete the work, and to estimate the total project effort and duration.
• Estimating costs. You and the sponsor need a good estimate of costs before the project gets going.  
• Agree on project management processes. This will include how the project manager will manage scope, issues, risks, communication, schedule, etc.

People ask me how much time it takes to complete the project planning. The answer is "sufficient". You need to spend the time to define the work, create a schedule, estimate the costs and set up the project management processes. If your project is small, this should not take much time. If your project is large the planning may take a log time. In other words, planning is scalable based on the size of the project.

Spending time on good planning ends up taking much less time and effort than having to correct the problems while the project is underway. We all know this to be the case. We just need to practice this on our projects. 

Cont.. 

Benefits of Project Management Training

Four Benefits of Project Management Training

The following are five reasons training is invaluable to you as a project manager.

#1 – Training Keeps You Engaged

Are you feeling a little sluggish on the job? Do you dread the ride into work each morning thinking about the long and boring day ahead of you? Training dispels the monotony. Take a course about an aspect of project management that really interests you. It may be risk management, agile methodologies, or root cause analysis. Deepening your knowledge in areas of interest will shake up your otherwise normal routine and get you excited about your job again.

#2 – Training Helps Your Career

Most professional certifications require an ongoing commitment to training and education. While this takes time, the upside is that it comes with real financial value. For example, a PMP certified project manager will make an average of $10,000 more per year than their non-certified counterpart. Keep your training current and an eye on your employment landscape and you’ll find yourself doing very well.

Current and potential employers like to see an ongoing pursuit of education. It helps them appreciate you as a lifelong learner who has followed a particular niche or specialty in your project management career.

#3 – Training Introduces New Ideas

You will always pick up something new when you attend a project management training course, simply because the discipline of learning temporarily removes you from your situation and gives you an aerial, objective view. For example, even experienced project managers learn new ideas and techniques attending a fundamentals class. They learn new ways of doing things they are already familiar with.

Training allows your experience and new learning to come together and provide a more holistic perspective than ever before. These nuggets of wisdom may not always be groundbreaking or revolutionary, but they are new. When you go to a training course with this mindset, you will come back with faster, more efficient and profitable ways to complete projects to share with your peers.

#4 – Training Exposes You to Other People

Most classes allow you to interact with new people. Maybe it even allows you to interact with current co-workers in new ways. It’s valuable to get out of your office or cubicle every now and then and see what the rest of the world is up to, and talk to your peers. The relationships you forge with your instructor, the person sitting next to you, or even someone you meet in an elevator can help you throughout the rest of your career in project management.

Tips for Project Communication

4 Tips for Project Communication

In a project environment, the circulation of unofficial information and rumors is enough to make heads spin. We set up official communication plans that detail who knows what and when, but struggle with managing the unofficial information. The following are tips to stop the confusion and manage the grapevine effectively:

Tip 1 - Become Part of the Grapevine
People love talking about what goes on within their work environment. The grapevine truly does exist in all companies. Assume the projects you manage are one part of that conversation, insert yourself into it and ask people what they are hearing about your projects. Is there any news from above? Are resources happy? Then, be sure to add your own facts into the mix. A little bit of accurate information never hurt anyone.

Tip 2 - Combat Negative Messages with Facts
Negative communication sometimes gets spun into a mile-long email thread. Inaccurate information and intensity of emotion continue to escalate the longer the email thread grows. The best antidote to negative communication is to get the facts out there as quickly as possible. Compose a thoughtful and precise "Reply All" with a handful of relevant facts to get everyone in sync. Then, kill the thread and take it offline.

Tip 3 - Stop the Bad Press
Most talk on the grapevine is harmless, primarily serving as an interesting diversion during a long day at work. People don't really pay that much attention to it. However, innocuous gossip can turn into hurtful and malicious slander. You need to track down the source of that information immediately and make it stop. Find out why someone feels compelled to put forth such negative propaganda about your project and deal with it face-to-face.

Tip 4 - Fill the Vacuum
You may have projects that aren't impacted by negative communication. However, you are left with a vacuum of communication. It's up to you to fill this void with positive and factual information about your project. Send out pertinent emails, give appropriate updates at company meetings, and have one-off conversations. That way, people will really have something to talk about when your project gets tangled up in the grapevine.

- Uday