There are a couple of project management mistakes that organizations/people make which lead to the failure of the projects. This can be very disheartening especially if you have invested a lot of time and other resources to see the project through.
Common Project Management Mistakes
1. Assigning the wrong person to manage the project
Normally, when allocating the resources for the project, most people focus on finding the proper resources instead of finding the ideal project manager. This is where you will find a project manager who is picked based on availability. This is not right as skill set should be a priority when looking for the project manager to avoid project management mistakes. This is because an inexperienced and/or inadequately trained project manager can end up dooming the entire project.
2. Failing to get the entire team behind the project
Many a times, projects end up failing because they do not get all the support they need from all the people as well as departments that are involved in it. This is where you can find that the managers don’t outline the role of all the participants clearly; they don’t outline the outcomes of the project if it becomes a success and do not tell people how their efforts will be evaluated if the project is a success.
They also fail to communicate effectively the urgency or importance of the project thus people do not handle it the way it is supposed to. To avoid this instance of project management mistakes, it is important that the entire team should be gathered together and the project manager should deliver a presentation that outlines everything they need to know about the project. This should be done in such a way that everyone is fired up and ready to tackle the project in the best way possible for the best results.
3. Working on too many projects at the same time
Most mangers normally think that they can end up doing more if they combine a number of projects at the same time. This is one of the project management mistakes as this ends up being counter productive. Multitasking has been known to hurt quality, slow people down and cause unnecessary delays. To avoid these production losses, it is important to focus on one project at a time and only start on another one after getting satisfactory results from the previous one.
4. Working with overly optimistic/ aggressive timelines
Although the intentions may be noble since you want to do away with the projects within the shortest time possible, it may end up doing more harm than good. Do you research well to know the time lines you will work with so that you do not take too long to come up with great results at the end of the day. As you plan how the project will be done, it is highly recommended that you add a buffer i.e. extra money and time to ensure it is completed in the proper way to avoid project management mistakes.
