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Top 10 PM Challenges

Top 10 Project Management Challenges Article

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Whether you are a new project manager, or an experienced leader, project management will continue to reveal itself as part art, part science, and part major headache! The list below highlights some of the top project management challenges, along with suggested solution ideas to help overcome those challenges:

1. Unrealistic deadlines - Some would argue that the majority of projects have "schedule slippage" as a standard feature rather than an anomaly. The challenge of many managers becomes to find alternate approaches to the tasks and schedules in order to complete a project "on time", or to get approval for slipping dates out. An "absolute" time-based deadline such as a government election, externally-scheduled event, or public holiday forces a on-time completion (though perhaps not with 100% of desired deliverables). But, most project timelines do eventually slip due to faulty initial deadlines (and the assumptions that created them).
   Solution: Manage the stress of "the immovable rock and the irresistible force" (i.e. the project deadline and the project issues) with creative planning, alternatives analysis, and communication of reality to the project participants. Also determine what deadlines are tied to higher level objectives, or have critical links into schedules of other projects in the organization's portfolio.
2. Communication deficit - Many project managers and team members do not provide enough information to enough people, along with the lack of an infrastructure or culture for good communication.
   Solution: Determine proper communication flows for project members and develop a checklist of what information (reports, status, etc.) needs to be conveyed to project participants. The communications checklist should also have an associated schedule of when each information dissemination should occur.
3. Scope changes - As most project managers know, an evil nemesis "The Scope Creep" is usually their number one enemy who continually tries to take control.
   Solution: There is no anti-scope-creep spray in our PM utility belts, but as with many project management challenges, document what is happening or anticipated to happen. Communicate what is being requested, the challenges related to these changes, and the alternate plans, if any, to the project participants (stakeholders, team, management, and others).
   
   
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