Avoiding Pitfalls During Projects

Not recognizing pitfalls early enough can make it difficult for project managers to keep the project on track.

They are minor yet dangerous enough to offset any experienced project manager. Simple tasks can turn out into unexpected problems. And if the right steps are not taken to avoid these pitfalls, the outcome of a project activity might change, this is called risk and when it does happen, it will affect the project outcome. PMs should be able to connect the dots, perceive and avoid them.

This piece is to help budding and experienced project managers spot some banana peels before stepping on them.

Here are the four common pitfalls I see time and time again on some projects and how project managers can avoid them.

1. Letting issues that require simple and quick fix degenerate to complicated issues. You shouldn’t let issues that require immediate and simple fixes linger, otherwise, you may have a bigger problem at hand. A delayed response can affect the project.

2. Not getting all the necessary approvals before commencing a new phase of the project or even the project. Most PMs recognize the importance of documentation and approvals, but often some take this for granted and it later comes to hunt the project.

3. Ineffective communication – According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), ineffective communications contribute to project failure at least 30 percent of the time, and less than optimal performance over 50 percent of the time. Some PMs do not know which information should be shared with each stakeholder group. The PM has the responsibility of managing communications on the project. It is important that the PM applies discretion when doing so. The PM should know what level of information is appropriate for each category of stakeholders. Sharing the right project info with the wrong recipient can lead to frustration, it is like depositing money into a wrong bank account, and sharing the wrong project information with the right audience can be very damaging to the reputation of the PM.

4. Setting unrealistic time and cost estimates in order to satisfy the client. When PMs propose impracticable estimates to stakeholders in order to get their commitments based on misleading expectations, such projects are often doomed from the start. Deadlines and budgets should be reasonable.

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