Project management is rewarding but rife with challenges. Today, we take a look at the three most common project management mistakes you should be aware of.
Doing Everything Yourself
If you are a perfectionist, you may tend to micromanage your team to the point where you end up doing most things yourself. Needless to say, this isn’t tenable in the long run.
Knowing how to delegate tasks is an essential project management skill. Not putting in the effort necessary to master delegation leads almost inevitably to burnout and a bunch of delayed tasks.
Not Being Upfront With Slackers
It’s not uncommon to be in a team where someone is not pulling their own weight.
The reasons range from understandable personal issues to outright laziness, but the result is always the same: chaos and more work for other members of the team (especially the project manager).
Being a project manager means knowing when and how to be assertive. Don’t cover for people whose effort is not up to scratch. Instead, talk with them, set expectations, and lay out a plan to meet your common goals.
Projects With Unclear Objectives
Objectives are fundamental because they help measure the progress of a project.
A project with unclear goals becomes messy and impossible to track — basically the opposite of what you expect from diligent project management.
This problem is more common than you think. According to a 2017 survey, the main reason why projects fail is “a lack of clearly defined objectives and milestones.”
There are many possible reasons why a project has unclear goals. For example:
- Pressure from stakeholders.
- The team or the organization as a whole lacks discipline.
- Communication gaps.
Regardless of the reason, as soon as you realize that a project has vague objectives, you have to take a stand by leveraging a simple principle: a plan without objectives is not a project, but a recipe for frustration.
Learn More About Project Management
Below are some previous posts you can read to learn more about project management and its related disciplines.
- Project management vs product management: what is the difference?
- Scrum: What you need to know
- Is project management a good career?
- What is a kaizen event?
About Darnell Technical
Darnell Technical Services is an engineering design firm with extensive experience in a vast array of projects. Our headquarters are located in Santa Ana, California, and we have an office in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Contact us today by telephone (714-285-0082 (CA), 702-945-2899 (NV)) or through our social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to learn more about all the technical instruments and materials we put at your disposal.
