12/05/2015
Five stumbling blocks and how to fix them in collaboration between companies and project members
Munich, May 12, 2015. Even though today's projects enjoy a high degree of professionalism and project managers are well trained, projects still fail on a regular basis. msg examined the daily content and consulting services it provides for projects in every industry and of every size to determine the causes of these failures and found them to lie outside project management - causes such as interference from other projects, what customers understand project management to be, poor change management and last, but not least, an inadequate understanding of project management by project teams themselves.
1. Interference from Other Projects
Poor project portfolio management within a company, or a lack thereof entirely, commonly leads to problems in individual projects. Employees scheduled to work full-time on one project can suddenly be reassigned to another struggling project or the project itself may be scheduled to start after another project that is abruptly delayed without forewarning. Even if a project manager has a good handle on their own project, these types of developments commonly lead to problems.
Solution: Early and regular coordination with all interfaces to your own project is the only way to detect these types of unpredictable problems early on. Such obstacles must be immediately escalated in order to manage stakeholder expectations. Well-functioning project portfolio and multi-project management establishes the structures required to do so and relieves project managers of this additional coordination task.
2. Interference from the Customer
Project managers can generally assume that the customer supports the project one hundred percent. However, everyday business can still produce certain hindrances that make collaboration more difficult. This can include a lack of support if the customer’s priorities happen to shift during the course of a project or if the customer themselves is not familiar with project management and is thus unaware of how to best support the project.
Solution: Once again, the only remedy for such problems is the hosting of meetings with everyone involved at the start of a project to clarify these topics. It is important to find out as early on as possible exactly what motivates the customer and whether they have considered all content issues, or whether the project manager needs to point out certain things that will be necessary in ensuring the mutual success of the project.
3. Change Management
To provide adequate change management, the project manager will need to have identified all stakeholders and won their support. For example, replacing an obsolete software with a new one without making sure the developers of the old system are adequately involved in the process and the new system may result in a lack of acceptance, which will also make collaboration more difficult.
Solution: Focus on the people. The project manager must find out which people need to be involved and to what extent, meaning people inside and outside the project team. They cannot merely assume that each member of the project shares the same interest in achieving the project goals. Furthermore, having the core team perform a stakeholder analysis may also be expedient. It is important to identify current and potential backers and to involve them accordingly, whether through participation or through discussion; however, it is also important to exclude any parties who may hinder the project.
4. Change Request Management
Difficulties often arise as a result of excessive change requests. It is not uncommon for change request processes to only be established once the first change request appears. In addition, project managers often believe that they have to implement all requests, which unintentionally places the project at risk.
Solution: Establish a project office that is responsible for creating a change request process and managing the process early on. The change request management can be used to adjust the planning, if necessary, and allows the project manager to escalate any conflicts. As a result, solutions can be found in good time and the project successfully continued.
5. Team Building in the Project
In contrast to project managers, who are generally highly-qualified and have corresponding project manager certificates, team members are often not sufficiently aware of everything project management involves. They are not familiar with project management methods and are not always familiar with the terminology used in that context. These are also factors that can slow a project down or even place it at risk. Some members may never have worked in that type of project, while others may have extensive experience.
Solution: The project manager should figure out exactly how much knowledge each of the team members has. A good way to do so is to host a project kick-off workshop with the project team at the start of the project.
"Potential gaps in method know-how among project members that are identified during the workshop should be closed by providing targeted project management training," explains René Warweitzky, Head of the Project Management Insurance Center of Competence at msg. "The employed methods then need to be addressed and explained in the everyday project work. Employees must know why things need to be done a certain way and what the advantage of doing so is."