What causes projects to fail? As learned in PMP Course online – there are five key reasons, in my opinion, why projects fail over and over again. Correct these issues from the start, and you’ll be able to avoid the majority of project failures. The difficulty is that they aren’t always easy to spot before it’s too late, and they aren’t always easy to fix. Communication, leadership, accountability, finances, and scope are the five reasons. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
1. Communication breakdown with PMP Course online
The project manager’s first job is to communicate. Communication, in my opinion, is the most important factor in whether a project succeeds or fails. On one of my projects, one of my business analysts told me that he felt the most informed and up to date on the project. He was working on several projects with several different project managers. He claimed that I sent out more email updates and kept the team more informed than the others with whom he worked. I liked that feedback, though I’m not sure if he was hinting at me to cut back on the emails… no way!
Establish a communication strategy – it doesn’t have to be a formal document; it may simply be a list of regular meetings and communication points discussed in a project meeting or sent through email. You can download and alter this communication plan template that I use frequently if you want a template. Your plan should define the major communication contact points with email addresses and phone numbers, as well as the ongoing project meeting schedules, regardless of the format you pick. There should be no justification for anyone on the project team, the customer’s team, or any of the stakeholders not knowing who to contact when – or how to contact the project manager 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if necessary.
2. Poor leadership in PMP course online
Leadership is essential – and a common source of success or failure. The project manager can’t go about whining about how out of control the team is. And the crew shouldn’t feel as though they have no idea what to do or anticipate from one day to the next – this is a surefire way to fail. Ascertain that everyone understands what is expected of them and that they are held accountable for achieving those objectives or accomplishing those duties. If you’re not late to meetings, there’s no reason for your team members to be late, either!
If you’re doing everything you can to lead your team well, but you have team members who are consistently underperforming. Haven’t responded to feedback, and things aren’t working. It’s still your responsibility to raise the flag that you need to replace a team member or team member and to push for it. The project manager who denies his or her own leadership will have a difficult time gaining respect. Following from his or her team members, and will most likely have a difficult time guiding the ship.
3. No team ownership
The projects we’re working on must be owned by our project managers and team. We may not be able to control everything, but we can surely control what we can. And that is what the project managers in charge of the company’s projects are required to do. As learned in PMP Course online – they are the ones who “own it.” If something is required for the project, it is the project manager’s obligation to obtain it or at the very least request it, and it is the project team members’ responsibility to raise flags when something is required.
Because they contribute to the project’s overall success or failure, each project team member is required to own the tasks. As they are responsible for and be accountable for the work accomplished on each of those tasks. Delegate clearly defined tasks to team members, as well as what types of decisions they can make without your approval. E.g., emailing a supplier about a shipment) and what they require your approval for (a key decision about costs. Eliminating this grey space gives team members greater control over their job and makes them feel less like cogs in the machine.
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Budget management
I believe that a project manager who is unable to manage project finances should not be in the field. Any project that is 10% over budget or less is performing well. Most projects that are 10% over budget are considered a success. A 10% budget overrun is unquestionably more fixable than a 40% to 50% budget overrun. So, how do you keep it to less than 10%? Luck? No! Weekly oversight, review, re-analyzing, re-planning, and instruction are all done diligently.
I refer to educating the project team when I say education. Maintain communication with the team and keep them informed about the project’s financial status. The team that knows you’re actively monitoring the project’s finances won’t charge their “grey hours” to your project. Everyone is putting in long hours, working 40, 50, or even 60 hours each week. But no one – or nearly no one – records those hours on a daily basis. So, at the end of the week, they have to bill to one of the three or four projects they’re working on. They won’t charge to it if they know you’ll call them on it for accountability, and your budget won’t simply vanish.
5. Scope oversight
The scope is one of those four-letter words that we normally avoid mentioning until it’s absolutely necessary. The worst thing that can happen is for the project manager to overlook the scope management portion of his responsibilities. As the end result is usually a project with extra, unpaid, and unscheduled work that pushes the project over budget and past its deadline.
When a customer requests new work, yelling “out of scope” at them is not going to make them happy, and the change order that follows will almost certainly make them much more unhappy. Change orders, on the other hand, are a fact of life on almost every project. I’ve never managed a project that didn’t have some scope creep. At the start of the project, make sure you have a clearly defined scope of work.
Summary/call for input
That’s my list based on 20+ years of what I’d term “pretty consistently good project management.” I wouldn’t be able to advance as a project manager if I never had problems. But happily, serious challenges have been few and far between, and I’ve frequently had fantastic teams to assist me. They assisted me in getting through the “valley of the shadow of death” on each problematic project and emerging unscathed.
A project management training can help you gain additional insight into how to successfully manage your projects. Whether you’re a team member or an agile manager. Consider getting certified and studying for the coveted PMP certification. You can do this if you are already an experienced project manager.
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