3 common mistakes in project management
We encounter these mistakes in almost every company
No project runs optimally and without problems. But you can easily avoid mistakes that numerous project managers have made before you. So today we present the three problems we encounter in almost every company and explain how you can fix them.
1. Lack of transparency
Whether it’s about tasks, finances or resources – lack of transparency is a big problem in project management. For example, many employees like to rely on their own email inbox, calendar or notebook with a to-do list for task management. However, this only works well until they work on projects together with others. Important tasks are quickly lost, misunderstandings arise in communication and it becomes unclear at which stage the project is. Furthermore, if individual team members work from a different location or from home, trouble is inevitable and the project is very likely to be delayed. Management is also only provided with incomplete and outdated data in this way. On the basis of this inaccurate data, wrong decisions may then be made. However, the issue of lack of transparency does not only concern the communication of the employees, but also the communication of their superiors. We often find that team members do not know exactly what is expected of them, what tasks they should fulfil and what goals they are supposed to work towards.
To avoid these problems, a clear structure is required for all communication. It also helps if all information on a project is collected centrally and made available to all participants at all times. A suitable project management tool helps to structure the course of a project, all resources, tasks and deadlines. Here, employees can also enter the current status of the project so that project managers can call up the status of the project at any time in order to be able to react quickly and flexibly to any delays or problems in the process.
2. Poor organisation
We often see that project management teams have difficulties in organising projects, so that projects do not meet the specified cost, quality and time. What we notice again and again is an unmanageable jumble of different Excel lists for project planning. As these lists are independent of all other systems in the company, important data has to be transferred to the lists and vice versa in a time-consuming process. In addition, it is often the case that each employee has his or her own preferred list. This means that not always the same data is collected and consistently transparent data cannot be provided within the company. Even in better organised companies, several project management tools are often used at once: one for time tracking, one to coordinate tasks, one for project management, and so on. Therefore maintaining an overview is not that easy. Therefore maintaining an overview is not that easy. Moreover, entering data into all the tools takes a lot of time and quickly leads to confusion and data chaos.
But handling projects efficiently and in a structured way is not that difficult if you use the right tools. Project management software that has interfacesto other systems of your company saves a lot of time in maintaining project data. Structuring projects and tasks is easier when best practice approaches and templates are used. In addition, integrated working time recording and a task management system help employees to fulfil their tasks optimally and within the specified framework. A good project management software that is optimally adapted to your company is not exactly cheap at first, but the great savings potential it brings with it makes the purchase worthwhile in any case.
3. Resource utilisation
Resource utilisation is also a common problem in project management. It is easy to keep track of resource planning in small teams, but it becomes difficult to keep track of all employees, their capacities, tasks and absences for larger projects. This quickly leads to bottlenecks and deviations from the plan. This quickly leads to bottlenecks and deviations from the plan. We often see that individual employees with special skills are heavily overworked. Lack of transparency and sub-optimal organisation of projects add to this overload as well. If the resource utilisation is not clear already at the beginning of a project, this often leads to unrealistic schedules that cannot be met in the end. Furthermore, if employees are absent for a while due to illness, for example, the project can no longer be realised as planned.
A good resource management system is essential in such cases. This allows the resource requirements of a project to be precisely determined and allocated. This allows the resource requirements of a project to be precisely determined and allocated. This way you can keep track of who is currently working on which project and who still has free capacities. In addition, you can react quickly if something changes in your plans or if employees are not available.
Have you identified similar challenges in your company or have you already found an optimal way to deal with them? We would be happy to talk to you about your individual difficulties in project management and support you in developing a suitable solution.