|
Typical Problems in Managing Projects
By Larry Richman, Contributing
Editor
Project management can
solve typical problems in managing projects, such as the following:
- Lack of agreement or commitment to project objectives
- Unrealistic completion dates or budgets.
- Project plans that omit important activities.
- Little or no customer focus.
- Lack of commitment to quality.
- Inadequate contingency plans to respond to problems.
- Late or useless reports.
- No consistent project management methodology.
- Short-term decisions that override important long-range objectives.
- Difficulty obtaining decisions on even elementary issues.
- Inability to openly discuss issues and solve problems rationally.
- Unrealistic expectations of the availability of resources or lack of
commitment to make them available.
- Excessive conflict between project and functional staff.
- Discrepancies in the balance between responsibility, accountability, and
authority.
- Problems adapting to changing conditions.
- Changes in the time, cost, or scope of the project without the necessary
changes in the others.
- No funds for front-end project planning.
- No funds for project management support.
- Inadequate project cost accounting.
- Poor estimates.
- Difficulty in juggling multiple projects.
- Too little or too much communication.
- Late identification and reporting of serious project problems.
- Inability to control the cost and schedule of assigned tasks.
- Inability to determine the impact of current variances.
- Failure to conduct post-task critiques and learn from mistakes.
|
