Managing projects is a multifaceted process that demands focus and careful execution of specific tasks for success. Developing and enhancing skills in this area can significantly improve project outcomes. Additionally, understanding common project management pitfalls can help you oversee projects more effectively and apply practical solutions.
Before we discuss the most common project management blunders, let’s review the five project phases.
What are the 5 phases of project management?
The five project phases provide a structured approach to executing a project from start to finish, with each phase building upon the previous one to create a clear path to project success. By following these five phases in project management, you will be able to take any challenges in stride and successfully plan, execute, and close a project.
Initiation - The conception of a project. This is when you set overall goals, check project feasibility, get stakeholder buy-in, and hold a kickoff meeting.
Planning -This stage plans the scope and budget, deadlines, team roles, communication plans, and milestones.
Execution - This is where task completion, team collaboration, status reports, and meetings take place.
Monitoring and controlling - This happens at the same time as the execution stage. Here’s when you monitor and control budgets and timelines, goals, quality, team performance, and risk management.
Closure - This phase involves a retrospective meeting, project closure report, and team celebration (the most important part, of course).
During each of the project management phases, mistakes are commonly made. These mistakes are easily avoidable if you are armed with the right information and tools. Unfortunately, it is only too common for even small mistakes to derail entire projects. An example of a simple mistake that could happen at any agency is a miscommunication of a deadline. All it takes is for one team to think they have a week longer than they do for the entire project to ride off the tracks.
In this blog, I’ll identify common mistakes in each of the phases of project management and provide practical advice on how to avoid them. Ready to bulldoze those bloopers? Keep reading!
Initiation Ineptitudes
The heady sense of a fresh, new project is great for team morale, but the excitement can also leave a large margin for brashness and error. So, what are the pitfalls during the initiation phases of a project, and how can you avoid them?
Lack of clear project objectives
If you’ve got a few projects under your belt, you know that a crystal-clear vision is imperative because if your blueprint has missing parts, you’re bound for failure. How do you ensure you have clear project objectives?
By defining SMART goals and ensuring that project objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, they have a high chance of being brought to successful fruition. As you set your project objectives, ensure they meet the SMART criteria, and if they don’t, it pays to rethink if that objective is worth pursuing.
Stakeholder faux pas
Unless your stakeholders have explicitly said they don’t want to be involved in project details, you need to include them in your decisions and communication from the very beginning. A common error in the initiation phase is to plan out the project and only then involve stakeholders. Stakeholders can have very different ideas about the project than you do, so conducting a meeting with them to understand their point of view can save you a lot of back-and-forth later on.
Credit: FreePik
Unrealistic project scope
What makes a realistic project scope? When you have the resources to meet the scope while staying within time and budget. I highly recommend you use a scope statement in the initiation phase to ensure the scope is clear, achievable, and backed by a realistic timeline and resources.
Planning Pitfalls
Inadequate risk management planning
Every risk must be taken as a threat to a project’s success. Not conducting a thorough risk assessment means you can be taken by surprise at any point during the project. To avoid unforeseen issues, create a risk management plan and allocate resources to be used in the event of a risk becoming a reality.
Underestimating timelines and resources
The rule in project management is that things almost always take longer and use more resources than you thought they would, leading to delays and cost overruns. That being the case, you definitely want to avoid underestimating your timeline and resources. Experts suggest that after calculating the timeline and resources you will need for a project, you should add 20% because, most likely, you’ll need that buffer.
To create an accurate estimate, use historical data and estimation tools.
Failing to create a detailed project plan
Relying on vague plans or not adequately breaking down tasks can create confusion and inefficiency. To avoid this, develop a comprehensive work breakdown structure (WBS). This involves breaking the project down into smaller tasks, allocating responsibilities, and establishing clear timelines and milestones.
Execution Errors
Ineffective communication
You can have an uber-talented project team, but if they do not communicate effectively, there are bound to be misunderstandings, and the project will stretch on far longer than necessary. To combat this, use project management communication tools and hold regular meetings to ensure consistent and transparent communication.
Inadequate monitoring and control
A project can be sailing along just fine…until it isn’t. Catching problems early on is key to reaching a successful project conclusion. The way to do that is by monitoring progress, timelines, and budgets regularly through status reports and key performance indicators. Having a project management tool with a project dashboard is an easy way to keep track of important metrics.
Failing to address scope creep
What happens when, mid-project, your client requests additional scope? Do you say, ‘Sure, no problem’? Adding extra scope without evaluating whether you have the resources to incorporate the extra scope without going over time or over budget will make your client very happy but could leave you in the dust.
Combat scope creep by ensuring you have a change control process in place so that you can wisely evaluate and approve or disapprove changes to the project scope.
Monitoring and Controlling Mishaps
Ignoring KPIs
As we mentioned above, failing to regularly monitor KPIs can eventually lead to project collapse. As the project goes along, be sure to keep on top of the timeline, costs, and quality.
Lack of adaptability
Having a solid project plan is wonderful and very necessary. However, it’s also important to be flexible when new circumstances are added to the mix. Being open to adjusting to the project plan based on emerging needs or challenges allows you to keep the project relevant and on the path to success.
Under-communicating with stakeholders
We mentioned involving stakeholders at the beginning of a project, but what about in the middle? Even if you think you’ve nailed your stakeholder’s expectations in the first meeting, you’d be surprised how often project managers experience misaligned expectations and dissatisfaction once they hand in the deliverables. Better safe than sorry - frequently update your stakeholders and get their approval through reports, meetings, and project management tools.
Closing Clumsiness
Skipping project evaluation
Doing a post-mortem on your project is an indispensable stage in project closure. There are many lessons to be learned from each project, and it’s a shame not to set aside time to learn them. Do yourself a favor and analyze what went well and what didn’t so that you can apply your knowledge to the next project.
Unclear handover
It’s tempting to celebrate finishing a project as soon as you’ve pressed ‘send,’ but your project is not really over until you have handed over the project in a way that your client understands and puts them in the best position to use your deliverables successfully. Failing to do so will result in disgruntled clients, which would be a shame since a clear and considerate handover doesn’t take long.
Failure to celebrate success and recognize efforts
Your team has worked hard—show them you appreciate it! Failing to acknowledge your team’s (or freelancers') efforts will make them less likely to want to work with you in the future and lower team morale in general. The best thing you can do at the end of a project is, at the very least, to thank individual team members and, ideally, hold a celebratory lunch or something else your team will appreciate.
Credit: FreePik
How can Workamajig help you avoid mistakes in project management?
Workamajig is a project management software that can help you avoid every one of the mistakes I mentioned above in every one of the project life cycle phases.
Here’s how:
- Workamajig provides SMART goals templates to give you a headstart on creating clear project goals.
- Workamajig allows all stakeholders to view and align projects through one central system.
- Advanced resource management capabilities allow you to coordinate resources and create live updates easily.
- With automated timeline and budget forecasting, you can relax, knowing that your project scope has been neatly defined, and you will be alerted if anything starts going off kilter.
- Workamjig’s easy-to-understand project dashboard keeps progress transparent, updating all team members simultaneously.
- Built-in communication tools keep everyone up to speed and avoid the need to communicate through any other platform, so all information is in one place.
- KPI analytics show you how you’re doing against project benchmarks.
- With easy approval and feedback collection systems, Workamajig automatically keeps stakeholders informed.
- Workamajig provides change request tracking and evaluation tools to help you make informed decisions about change requests easily.
- Comprehensive ‘lessons learned’ templates help you document your experiences in a snap.
- Seamless project archiving helps you keep data in a place where you can find it easily and ensures nothing is lost.
- Plus, much, much more!
Don’t learn the hard way. Just get Workamajig.
