Commonly Mistakes in the Project Management

There are many mistakes in the project management however being a practical project management, we need to be able to summarize it so it will be easier to remember and manage it.

Here’s are the commonly mistakes in the project management:

·      Lack of follow up action. The key message of follow up is CLOSE. It is crucial for project manager to follow up issues/action items and close it properly. The tip is every meeting makes Minutes of Meeting (MoM) and include follow up of action items/issues with the resolution date and have a discipline to follow it up, do not leave anything.

·      Late escalation. The key message of escalation is TIMELY MANNER. It is crucial as a project manager that s/he needs to escalate in the timely manner. This escalation is the result of follow up that requires higher intervention. Remember there is nothing wrong with escalation however as a project manager, s/he needs to escalate to right time and the right people.

So now let’s apply this into project management role (on time, on budget and in scope). E.g. one of issues that comes out from project meeting that there is one requirement is still not clear whether it is in scope or not. As a project manager, s/he needs to follow this up until it is clear or not by reviewing the requirement specification or have subsequent meeting, the follow up can take in any form of activity so we can see here follow up is crucial activity.  Let’s take sample that the result of the follow is confirmed that the requirement is out of scope and user confirm it is required for them. So this situation trigger as escalation to the higher management because it may impact time and budget since the project have more requirement than before. With timely manner escalation, a project manager can get approval or not for budget and time and s/he can inform the user or other project stakeholder about the result accordingly.

Remember, on time does not mean the project runs as per original schedule there always be a situation that the project may runs longer than the original. However, with proper follow up and escalation such deviation is acceptable because it is communicate properly amongst project stakeholder and surely need to be approved. This also applies for other such as on budget and in scope point of view.

So be focus on follow up and escalate properly.