There are mistakes you can make in project management, and then there are the seven absolutely unforgivable seven deadly sins of project management. Committing any of these sins and you can be sure that your project will fail – so avoid them at all costs!
Lack of leadership
Leadership is one of the most important aspects of a project manager’s job. The team can only work effectively if they can trust the project manager to make the right decisions and lead them. Without leadership, the project will quickly turn into a disaster.
Having the wrong priorities
A project manager needs to be able to identify the most important and urgent tasks. These are the tasks you need to put on the top of your project’s task list because you need to finish them before you can complete the project (see Critical Path).
Choosing the wrong people
A project is nothing without the people working on it. This is why you need to find the right people for the right job. It’s no use to hire a plumber to fix your electricity problems after all. To match the tasks with the people with the right skills set, you need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of every team member.
Lack of communication
The project manager needs to communicate the goals and objectives with the team and keep stakeholders up-to-date regularly. A lack of communication can lead to confusion and misunderstandings, and even a loss of trust in the project manager and the project itself.
Not tracking metrics and progress
You need to compare your estimates with the actual data to be able to see whether the project is on the right course. If you don’t track your metrics you won’t know if the project is on the right course or whether you’re about to majorly overrun your budget or completely miss your deadline – or both.
Inefficient processes
A project can only run smoothly and produce quality deliverables if the project processes are efficient. If you don’t work on improving your processes, you’re essentially wasting your resources, which can be extremely costly – which is an unforgivable mistake in these difficult economic times.
Not having a plan
A project that doesn’t have a clear plan from the very beginning can’t actually be called a project. [Tweet this] The project manager needs to create a clear project plan that defines the overall project objective, includes all tasks that need to be done, and time and budget estimates.
If you want to know what you should do, read our previous blog post: The 10 Commandments of Project Management