18 Pitfalls of Project Management and Proven Ways to Avoid Them

Don’t Let Your Project Fail: Practical Solutions for Small Business

Even with a strong business case and what may be a routine scope, there are several pitfalls that can ruin great projects at any time.  These challenges can adversely impact projects led by both first-time program managers, who may not be prepared enough for what lies ahead, as well as experienced leaders who inherited a project at the brink of failure.

Fortunately, while unexpected challenges will arise in every project we lead, there are several program management techniques we can apply to prevent, reduce or offset the impact of typical project pitfalls. 

Here are 18 common causes of project failure and strategies you can employ to combat them.  Let’s get started.

1. A Poor Project Management Process

We’ll begin with the overall process.  Every project has a beginning, middle and an end, which means they benefit from standard work and disciplined program management processes.

An effective project management process consists of a robust set of integrated tools, steps, and guidelines.  These procedures should help leaders of programs plan, execute and monitor activities. 

Additionally, organizations follow these methodologies to manage and control risk. 

Finally, a sound program management process defines rigid protocol that must be followed while permitting real-time decision making by the project manager.

Without a well-developed process to guide you in a controlled manner, however, the project team may miss key decision points, short-cut critical steps, and fail to properly identify risks that emerge. 

Fortunately, small businesses can developing their own processes that best-fit their organization’s mission.  Even a basic framework that you create using your own experience on prior programs can help.  

A key project management workflow process should:

• Define key steps and tasks for each phase of a project.
• Provide tools and resources to help the team execute tasks and make decisions.
• Require steps (e.g. internal check-points and approvals) aligned to predefined requirements.
• Provide risk management requirements, templates and processes.
• Include thorough checklists to ensure all details and tasks have been completed or considered.

2. Lack of Customer Involvement

The customer – or internal stakeholders as it may be – must be involved from the beginning and on a continuous basis thereafter.  Regular communication and dialog with the customer are necessary to ensure program activities are on track, objectives are met, and to ensure timely decision-making.

Additionally, having the customer as part of the process ensures you incorporate their requirements and direction throughout the process.  Having the customer involved also drives accountability – by being part of the process, the result is jointly their responsibility. 

When the client or customer is not involved, however, you’re at the mercy of only the written requirements (if any) or your interpretation of the initial customer request. 

In order to gain customer involvement:

• Setup a recurring weekly (or at a frequency that makes sense) customer/stakeholder meeting in order to maintain communication over the course of the project.
• Issue a weekly or monthly progress report.  Even if they don’t acknowledge it, they’ve been informed.
• Create and manage an action list that identifies ownership of key tasks and responsibilities throughout the program.

3. Poorly Defined Scope

The scope of a project defines both the final destination of the program as well as the general path to get there.  It also defines any expected deliverables and specific steps you must take.

Naturally, poorly defined scope or project goals will doom a program from the start.  Whether it’s to develop a new product, remodel someone’s home, or perform a service for your client, if the scope is not defined and specific enough, you’ll waste a lot of time on the wrong things and may even finish the project with the stakeholder left wondering how you went wrong.

Defining scope correctly is a critical step in any project’s success. While it can be a painful exercise, holding detailed discussions and creating documentation up front can be the difference between a smoothly run program and missing the mark entirely.

You can help yourself dial in the scope by:

• Conducting a line by line review of all customer documents up front (including Terms and Conditions!).
• Summarizing the scope for the internal project team so they clearly understand what is IN and what is OUT of scope.
• Negotiate changes to customer or stakeholder requirements throughout the project to ensure you are not liable for old or obsolete requirements that no longer apply when all is said and done.
• Develop and maintain a compliance matrix that monitors, tracks and reports your level of compliance to a customer specification or project charter.

4. Bad Assumptions

Despite your efforts to lock-in the scope up front, rarely, if ever, are all project details clearly defined at the start.  So, we must make assumptions.  These assumptions are often used to establish resource plans, budgets and schedules.  Thus, the validity and reasonability of your assumptions is extremely important.

However, don’t just make assumptions for the purpose of making assumptions.  Put careful thought into each one, document them, and ask yourself four questions:

• Is this assumption realistic?
• Is this assumption appropriate given prior experience on similar projects?
• What is the impact of this assumption being incorrect?
• When will I be able to verify these assumptions are reasonable?

There is no fool-proof way to make assumptions without some level of risk, but careful planning can make a big difference.  You won’t have all the answers up front, but you can make calculated choices.

Here are some tips for making project assumptions:

• Calibrate current assumptions with those of past projects. 
  • Do they align? 
  • Is the scope of this similar project to the prior ones?
  • Were past project assumptions reasonable? 
  • Did assumptions of past project hold up over time?
  • Am I missing anything?
• Review your initial assumptions with other experienced team members for feedback.
• Document and gain buy-off of key assumptions from the stakeholders/customers.  If assumptions prove to be invalid, it opens the door for cost recovery at a later date.

5. Not Meeting Requirements

Previously, we mentioned a poorly defined scope as one reason why projects may be a flop.  Now, assuming the scope is well defined – did you deliver?

Projects typically involve a detailed set of requirements in the form of a Statement of Work, a technical specification, and other similar artifacts.  The content of these documents is typically binary; they’re black and white. 

While these documents are critical to the success of a project, so is your ability to demonstrate you’ve fulfilled your obligations. Failing to prove you’ve met every requirement can lead to major schedule delays and cost overruns, as you go back and make changes to your work. 

In order to minimize this:

• Require all team members to review the Statement of Work and related documents.
• Schedule periodic audits of the team’s work by internal experts relative to requirements.
• Revise customer documentation when necessary to clarify ambiguous and unclear requirements.
• Track your status for each item in a compliance matrix and review with your customer regularly.  Anything deemed “non-compliant” should be addressed, removed or negotiated out of the scope.

6. Bad Budget

Naturally, a poorly developed budget or bad financial estimate at the beginning of a program will sink the project from the start.  Underestimating the necessary resources, expenses and investments will drive the team to spend more time just managing costs, and focus less energy on delivering project results.

Realistically, like making assumptions, establishing a “perfect” project budget at the beginning is next to impossible.  Still, making reasonable assumptions, conducting a thorough evaluation of the work scope and doing some basic comparative analysis will get you close. 

You can start off on the right financial foot by:

• Evaluating customer requirements carefully and thoroughly.
• Comparing this project to prior projects and actual expenses where you have comparative data.
• Reviewing project estimates with experienced colleagues for feedback.
• Building in financial buffers; planning conservative costs.
• Identify opportunities for cost recovery down the road (e. g. customer changes, cost reductions, using less expensive resources, etc.).

RELATED: How to Create an Estimate of Hours for A New Project

If you’re already committed to a project with a poorly developed budget, here are a few additional suggestions:

• Seek cost recovery from the customer or client for every change they initiate relative to the initial scope.
• Review project assumptions.  Did customer actions invalidate assumptions such that you can recover cost?
• Bring in a separate team focused on cost management (e.g. supplier negotiations, efficiency improvements) to allow the project team to focus on the project and not take time away from the program.
• Identify opportunities to use less expensive resources where possible.