Project Management Mistakes in Your Business
Would you build a house without a blueprint? No, right? So why run projects without a proper system? Yet, many businesses skip some essential project management steps and overlook the fact that project management requires a systemic approach as well. Otherwise, you will keep facing the same problems over and over again and deliver projects in chaos and exceeding timeframes and resources. Curious to know what are the most common mistakes that could be silently sabotaging your success? Let’s break them down.
No Project Management Software at all
Many companies, especially when they just start, rely on emails, spreadsheets, and notes to track tasks and deadlines. That might seem okay at first. But as activities expand and projects grow in scope or complexity, those tactics might start falling short. Having hundreds of tasks, it is easy to lose track of who’s doing what and what comes next. Your team may miss deadlines, tasks can be completed at the last minute, or even worse, forgotten at all.
When you don’t use project management software, you miss out on better collaboration, automatic notifications, and crystal clear overview of progress. With these tools you always have a general idea of your projects and tasks, and can spot troubles instantly. They also help your team bring all communication from different chats and emails to one single place and coordinate work without jumping through random threads. Sounds plausible, right? A project management tool that you can start with is a simple and convenient Gantt chart maker from GanttPRO. It embraces all this functionality and a bit more.
Wrong Software or Poor Implementation
Now, let’s suppose you’ve made up your mind to start using project management software, but things still feel chaotic. This can happen for several reasons. First, you might have chosen a platform that looks fancy and maybe even offers a free plan, yet it doesn’t actually address your team’s needs. Maybe it does not have a particular feature that is essential for your team, or it does have it, but just doesn’t match your work requirements. This is something you have to check beforehand, and change if you notice the mismatch.
Another reason is that you may have a tool that could work perfectly well, but the team never learns how to use it properly. If that’s happening, your fancy software just becomes another icon on everyone’s desktop. You can see that obtaining software is not enough, you also have to show people how to incorporate it into their day-to-day routine. Spend some time on or just hire a professional who will onboard everyone explaining the full potential of the project management tool. A proper training and practice will reflect on project results.
Wasting Time
Ask any manager about wasted time, and they’ll roll their eyes immediately. The truth is that when you spend time on tasks that don’t move the project forward, you just miss the opportunity and time to handle things that truly matter. You will just keep postponing tasks to the next day until the workload converts into something unmanageable.
One practical solution is, first, to look at your meeting schedule and see which ones you can remove at all, shorten, or replace with quick updates and notes in your project management tool. Another one is to set clear responsibilities from the very beginning. If everyone is assigned to a specific task, they will be accountable for a specific piece of work and don’t waste time on finding out who is supposed to do what.
No Team Development or Training
Unfortunately, projects still don’t get completed by software, they require people. People who are skilled and motivated enough to understand how to do their job well. If your team isn’t trained and is not constantly updated on the best practices or technologies, you’ll simply lag behind with your projects and business overall.
Proper training can also have an impact on how your team adapts to project changes and advances. Don’t assume people just figure things out. Give them the resources, mentorship, and guidance they need. Great news is that this investment is equally good for the success of a single project, and for many projects onwards.
Too Many Projects at Once
Being ambitious is great if you aim for success. Being overly ambitious can put you into trouble though. It’s very tempting to expand and start new projects when you see an opportunity. It is exciting to try new ideas, launch new products, or experiment with interesting technology. But if you keep adding more projects than your team can handle, you just put your team at risk of not getting anywhere. People will jump from one task to another, and will never quite finish anything. Definitely, not the ideal productive workflow you can imagine.
At some point, you have to stop and ask yourself which projects align with your core goals and which ones impede reaching those goals. It makes sense to focus on a smaller number of projects that really matter, and deliver good results there than focus on dozens and not getting anywhere at all. Fewer projects also free up mental space that is good to have for higher performance and creative approach.
Inexperienced or Poorly Trained Project Managers
A project manager is like an orchestrator. They help everyone in a project work in harmony, guide the tempo, and intervene when something is off. Therefore, if your project manager lacks experience or hasn’t been properly trained, things may fall out of tune. This may affect project schedule, deliverables and most importantly the final outcome.
The role of a project manager is so important. They should be able to handle risks, adapt to changes in scope and find solutions to problems with resources. Finding (or training) a person who can lead projects effectively might be one of the smartest moves you can make. With the right skills, a well-trained manager can magically convert things that are not working into an asset.
No Clear Process or Responsibilities
Another obstacle on the way to project success is unclear process definition. If you don’t do this upfront, you will likely experience confusion and problems once the project kicks-off. Some people might say, “I thought we were supposed to do it like that,” while others thought the other way around. Without a clear outline of responsibilities and procedures, team members will work way less efficiently.
At the same time, establishing a process doesn’t mean constricting creativity. It just means drawing a roadmap so everyone knows how to move from one phase to the next. When it;s clear who is responsible for what within the context of a bigger picture, everyone takes ownership and accountability for their work and then sees how it contributes to the project’s success. Besides, a defined process helps you to identify inefficiencies, distribute workload, and see actual progress.
Lack of a Solid Business Case
There are projects that are started without a clear business case and that’s a big mistake. The business case explains the value the project will bring. Increasing the revenue, cutting costs, improving customer satisfaction, to name a few. When you don’t have this explanation what’s the point of the project?
Even if you somehow bring the project to the end, you might discover it doesn’t actually help your business and that you’ve just spent money on nothing. All you’ll get are wasted resources and disappointed stakeholders. What is the solution? Always define and document the project’s purpose and set metrics to evaluate it afterward.
Unclear Goals and Deliverables
Finally, the last mistake is to not have a clear goal and deliverables. If you’re not specific about what success looks like, how can you say that you’ve achieved it? Besides, when people interpret the end goal in different ways, they approach their work differently as well, and this costs time and money.
Clear deliverables, on the other hand, help you manage expectations. Otherwise, how can you figure out deadlines, required resources, and key checkpoints, if you don’t know exactly what needs to be done?
When you combine well-defined goals with a thorough plan for each deliverable, you set your path to success. When you go with the flow, you set your path to failure. It ‘s easy.
Wrapping It All Up
Every time you start a project, you have a chance to set the stage for success or breed chaos. Recognizing and fixing the common mistakes we’ve discussed in this article, will bring you better project outcomes, improvements in efficiency, teamwork, and overall satisfaction.
