Rookie project managers are prone to costly blunders that might fail a project and have a negative influence on their project management career. Fortunately, these blunders can be avoided. This article examines seven of these all-too-common blunders and offers practical advice and best practices for project managers of all levels of expertise.
- Wrong person to manage the project
Company that hires a project manager who lacks experience should anticipate the project to fail. Although a new project manager can learn the ropes on the job, the process of doing so may fail. To manage a project, it is usually ideal to hire the most qualified person possible.
- Lack of resources and skills
A project’s failure can be caused by a lack of resources. Similarly, even though your team is complete, if none of the members have the talents required for a particular activity, the project will struggle to succeed. Poor resource matching will have a negative impact as well. Before beginning any endeavor, be sure you have everything you’ll need.
- Poor Communication
The inability to interact with project members is one of the project management difficulties that project managers face. When there is a misunderstanding, everyone points fingers and blames one another.
- Unclear objectives
Any project’s success might be interrupted by poor planning that results in a poorly defined goal. One of the problems with project management is the inability to come up with a simple goal. There is also a requirement for success indicators. Make sure the members grasp what they need to know right away.
- Failure to manage project scope
Changes in scope are a common cause of project failure. During the planning stage, the project scope must be agreed upon. There must also be a mechanism in place to manage requests for scope adjustments, and the proposal must adhere to a set of criteria to analyze its impact on the schedule and budget.
- Not being honest with the process
Project heads aren’t always perfect, to be sure. Most people, on the other hand, will readily admit that they would rather have a project manager who tells them the truth (even if it contradicts some of their beliefs and assumptions) than be surprised and disappointed with bad results. Even if there is negative news to deliver, they would prefer to receive it as quickly as possible, allowing them to take corrective action relatively soon (quite likely saving time and money).
- Letting a one-man show
Project managers should pay attention to their team members’ suggestions. Members prefer to keep quiet when a project manager ignores his team and discourages them from giving their ideas and proposals since he believes he is far superior to them. Project managers must be receptive to recommendations and understand how to delegate responsibilities while demonstrating that he believes in his team’s talents.
Learn from Mistakes, but don’t make mistakes too often!
Being a newbie or an experienced project manager it isn’t a simple task to get things figured out. Aside from learning the basics of project management, a rookie project manager must immediately learn to avoid these all-too-common pitfalls, which can regrettably destroy a project practically even before it starts.
New project managers must lead from a win-win situation and not allow intimidation to drive them to make any sort of important mistakes. It’s just as difficult to confront your problematic team members than to be brutally honest with a project manager. If neglected being honest, in either condition then it has the potential to fail the project. Similarly, project managers must not ignore any preventive measures such as initiation of the project and risk analysis of the team even before the project begins. Both may appear to be frills in the initial stages of the project, but they will quickly become the utmost necessities.
