Thursday, June 9, 2016

Challenges with Project Management

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The iron triangle is too tough to balance. Too often or not, it was observed that one axis is either long or short compared to the other two. And it might be near perfection to maintain equidistant axes.   Project stakeholders are left perplexed tearing the hair wondering what went wrong, and ‘how didn’t we see that coming? We failed to detect and decipher the warning. Did we throw caution to the wind?’ that will sound too critical as due diligence is done through detailed discussion and deliberation before inking the contract, yet, projects going off the rails poses serious threats in damage control and contingency measures.  What went wrong should be a lesson learnt for the next or projects in pipeline, yet projects seems to stumble in the same spot flummoxes and shakes the foundation. It might sound clichéd or routinely repetitive but professionals tread on a beaten track and worn out path, and ironically can’t sight the pitfalls and potholes? What possible oversights that project suffer – that are ‘known’ knowns and still found wanting on action and remedy.

Identify Project Objective and Goals:
The stakeholders stating the objective should make sure that project goals are identified and make sure the message reaches out to the team. Chances of disconnect is disturbingly high when objective isn’t clear or communication incoherent. Minor addition to the original scope will result in a major reshuffle, transfiguring the original requirements.  Consequently, the project fails to progress on expected lines. It can be any field and platform independent and technology agnostic as project is a temporary endeavor with a start and end date. The dates differ because the project team plays a different wherein goal posts keeps keep shifting. 


Determine the Project Scope:
Always the slippery slope. The in-scope and out-of-scope tends to blur and blend, and the risk is inherent.  Is it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle? It might be appear as exaggeration expression. Most experienced project managers would agree that ‘admission and accommodation’ that starts as a trickle is difficult to stem as a tide. Nudge here and poke there and scope is nowhere near the ‘original’ scope. 

Emphasize Project Communication across Stakeholders:
Stepping up communication will set the expectation right. The fundamental reason for any misunderstanding is poor communication. In a technology advance professional work environment, gap due to improper communication is unacceptable hampering hampers productivity and performance. Be it manual or electronic exchange, there will be greater degree of transparency and accountability only when communication between stakeholders is crystal clear and timely on delivery.

Prepare proper Project Deadlines:
Delivery deadlines must be realistic. Setting up unreasonable timeline is self-destructive. It can lead to serious issues running your project progress and workforce morale. Raising the bar is good to groom but poor governance to reflect in the target. The date of completion can be setting after taking stock of the soft skills and availability. The resources pose an intrinsic risk, admittedly, and hence there is a standby or fall back provisions made in the ‘resource plan’ but the usual practice of engaging someone on something is strictly on ‘evaluation of excellence’ and securing confidence.

Evaluate Talent Pool:
Expectation are always high – be it employer or employee but rising up to it and staying in ‘top of form’ consistently is breaking grounds in terms of performance.  Team, inevitably, will be a mix of talent pool. Any shortcoming or deficit will be offset by outstanding performance and that’s how it becomes teamwork.  The delivery and deadline should be worked out only after factoring your Talent Pool. Assessing your resources becomes critical before committing about the possible time of completion. Besides, it strongly recommended conducting the SWOT analysis on every team member to evaluate the team’s strength and weakness. Sometimes there is too much of reliance on a particular resource that can lead too much ‘burn’, and ‘wear’. There is only so much a resource can perform and efforts are to optimize. Beyond that the very resource is put in peril – too much of a risk.

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