Common Mistakes of Project Managers

A single mistake from the person in charge of a project can not only cause delays but at times might even result in the complete failure of a project. This is not only incredibly demotivating but can also create issues around reputation management not to mention a potential marketing nightmare for the organisation or the team ultimately responsible for the delivery of the project.

While no two projects are exactly the same, the issues that can affect — and potentially jeopardize — them are often quite similar. And even good project managers can make mistakes when wrangling a big, complex project — or when being bombarded with change requests. Understanding the most common project management mistakes helps focus our efforts and helps us to avoid the same mistakes on our projects.

The following are some of the most common mistakes made by project managers:

• Not clearly understanding how or ensuring that the project is aligned with organizational objectives.
• Not properly managing stakeholder expectations throughout the project.
• Not gaining agreement and buy-in on project goals and success criteria from key stakeholders.
• Not developing a realistic schedule that includes all work efforts, task dependencies, bottom-up estimates, and leveled assigned resources.
• Not getting buy-in and acceptance on the project schedule.
• Not clearly deciding and communicating who is responsible for what.
• Not utilizing change control procedures to manage the scope of the project.
• Not communicating consistently and effectively with all key stakeholders.
• Not executing the project plan.
• Not tackling key risks early in the project.
• Not proactively identifying risks and developing contingency plans (responses) for those risks.
• Not obtaining the right resources with the right skills at the right time.
• Not aggressively pursuing issue resolution.
• Inadequately defining and managing requirements.
• Insufficiently managing and leading project team.

You are a project manager who has to juggle multiple projects simultaneously without messing up any one of them. Despite that, the projects you oversee end up taking longer to complete and cost you much more than the original budget. This gives you sleepless nights and even when you sleep, you get nightmares. Does all this ring a bell? If yes, you need to think about the reasons why projects fail. When you analyze it, you will realize that you are making some  classical project management mistakes repeatedly that are hampering your project progress.