Corporateplanning

4 Common Project Management Complications and One Solution

In the absence of proper knowledge regarding the segment that we are discussing, it is not possible to provide accurate descriptions of the exact issues that might arise in it. However, there are a bunch of common issues which most project managers and project team members face on a daily basis, irrespective of the sector. We will highlight some of those here and explain how a singular solution might help in beating all of them.

Miscommunication and Poor Communication

There is a subtle difference between miscommunication and poor communication, which is to say that the former is unintentional, while the latter is not. Sometimes, the planning itself is incomplete, leaving little room for proper two-way communication channels to remain open all the time, but at others, some team members might be intentionally uncooperative. The combination of the two can slow any project down to a crawl.

Misalignment

Misalignment in project management is an issue that arises when different teams of the organization involved in the project do not have aligned goals. The same can happen within a team as well, if each team member is only concerned with fulfilling his/her own goals, without having a broader perspective regarding what the overall strategy is, or what objectives they are all trying to chase down as a team.

A common example would be when the development team, the marketing team, and the sales team are unaware of each other’s progress or modus operandi. This may lead to false marketing or a seemingly underperforming product.

Missed Deadlines and Insufficient Budgets

The two seemingly unconnected complications are, in reality, very closely linked to each other. To explain the connection, we must take the concept of scope creep into consideration first. Scope creep is a phenomenon which is seen when changes and additions are made to the pre-decided parameters of a project, without calculating the extra time and money it would take to accommodate those changes successfully.

As the original plan had no scope or consideration for the new elements, scope creep can have the following consequences:

  • Deadlines are missed
  • Deadlines are met, but the quality of the final product is compromised
  • Not all parameters can be accommodated within the budget
  • Employees burn out, as they work longer and harder to factor in aspects that were not even planned for
  • It can potentially void the entire planning and budgeting done prior to starting the project
  • Increased number of errors are made, thus stretching the finish line even further than before
  • The starting date of the next project is also delayed, which increases the chance of failing future deadlines as well
  • Key team members may leave due to unrealistic budgeting and poor planning by the project manager

Resource Conflicts

There is a difference between poor budgeting and resource conflicts, but the latter can also be a result of the former. If the budget was insufficient for the parameters set in front of the team, then resource conflicts are inevitable.

Even if the budgeting is appropriate, there is certainly opportunity for resource conflicts to arise in case the project manager is unable to handle his/her allocation duties properly. Resource management should be part of the planning itself, but the project manager should be capable of making alterations to the initial strategy, to accommodate small changes. If the changes are not small though, that is once again when scope creep comes in and creates an environment for resource conflicts. In any project where the various departments or team members are competing with each other for resources, teamwork is an invalid term, and without teamwork, the entire plan falls apart.

Transparency is the Solution to Most Common Project Management Issues

If you take a look at this series of project management problems and solutions listed by Kanbanize, it should become obvious that transparency is the most common solution which applies to almost any complication that may arise in a project. Kanbanize has modified the classic Kanban board, which originated in Japan and was most famously adopted and improved by Toyota in the 1940s. Their digital Kanban software aims to keep everything transparent, so that all common problems, which range from poor communication and planning to scope creep, can be detected and addressed immediately by the project manager or delegated members of the group/groups in charge. However, that is not the only solution that Kanbanize brings to the table, as their software can also integrate agile and lean elements into it to make each step of project management into a leaner and more cost-effective one. Check the site out for more information on that.

Project management is not an easy job, and it gets more complicated with time as a company begins to grow and tackle multiple projects of increasing complexity at once. Despite the complications that may arise while handling a particularly difficult project, it is possible to overcome them, as long as the teams have access to the right tools and the planning is right for handling each potential complication that may arise.

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