Why do projects fail?
Your team is working overtime, struggling to keep up with ad hoc requests, while your supervisor demands constant updates. Sound familiar? Your project management process may be flawed.
Inefficient processes lead to burnout, lower productivity, absenteeism and turnover, ultimately costing organisations. In contrast, highly engaged teams experience 78% less absenteeism and 51% less turnover and are 23% more profitable.
How can teams effectively manage information, communicate and collaborate to stay on track? This post highlights five common project management pitfalls, why projects fail and practical solutions to ensure success.
In this guide:
Challenge 1: You can’t keep up with all the ad hoc requests.
Mid-project and last-minute requests come from everywhere — unexpected reports, updates, reviews and emails. Some IT organisations claim that they spend up to half of their time on unplanned work. Our 2023 State of Work report reveals that we experience more than 13 work interruptions per day. It can take 20 minutes or more after each interruption to return to the task at hand.
Solution: Get a handle on ad hoc work.
Modern work management requires being prepared for every kind of work — both planned and unplanned. Being prepared for the unexpected is crucial, especially knowing that, even with strong project planning, work hardly ever goes exactly as planned.
And just because you receive ad hoc requests doesn’t mean you have to comply with every single one. Tracking ad hoc projects is a way to gain visibility into work, set clear boundaries and standardise your request management process. Getting organised and staying that way as work comes up can involve focusing on a few specific areas, such as your calendar and inbox.
Understand what keeps people from getting work done. Download the 2023 State of Work report.
Challenge 2: You can’t see what your team is working on.
About three-quarters of American workers wish they had a centralised place to view their work across the organisation. Over half say that finding information as a consumer is easier than finding information at work.
Little to no work visibility is one of the leading causes of unplanned work and overwork. When you don’t know where your time is going or where it needs to go, you can’t effectively manage your priorities. And without clear priorities, everything will feel urgent, even when it isn’t. Effective time management, a core project management knowledge area, can’t happen without work visibility.
Low visibility is also a significant contributor to inflexibility, as it hinders the ability to adapt quickly to project changes or pivot in response to shifting conditions.
Not only that, but a lack of visibility makes it nearly impossible to evaluate people’s work. Managers need consistent visibility into their team’s work so they can provide useful and transparent feedback and plan effectively for future projects.
We’re already overwhelmed with emails and messages, so don’t let a lack of visibility lead to unnecessary update requests and disrupt your communication management plan. In fact, it’s reported that we waste over 8.7 hours per week on unnecessary tasks, low-value communications and wasteful meetings.
Solution: Start seeing clearly.
A centralised place for work management and a streamlined process will enable managers to have consistent access to the updates they need rather than overloading their teams with status requests. Reducing needless communication saves stakeholders time and energy, as does continuous awareness of tasks, priorities, people and progress.
What is stakeholder management?
Stakeholder management involves communicating project status, costs and roadblocks to stakeholders to increase visibility, navigate changes in project direction and manage expectations. Project stakeholders are individuals who are involved in your project or whose interests may be affected by project execution or successful project completion.
The stakeholder management process helps project managers keep change front of mind while making it less threatening. The stakeholder management plan is an important reminder for all interactions project managers have with direct or indirect stakeholders, as it helps them to maintain practical connections between the project and daily operations.
Challenge 3: You have too many disconnected tools.
Nearly half of workers say the number of apps and programmes they need to perform their work gets in the way of their productivity. Additionally, 39% say that the number of communication options available negatively affects their ability to complete work.
However, communication tools are just one of the problems. We are also overloaded with ways to file share, network, track time, log work and manage data.
Solution: Know when to connect tools and when to cut them.
The first step in organising and streamlining your set of tools is to merge and connect when possible. You can choose from many platforms with API capabilities to transfer data and you can centralise your operational system of record (OSR), such as your customer relationship management tool (CRM), human resource management application (HRM) or enterprise resource planning platform (ERP).
However, watch for redundancies and eliminate non-essential tools to minimise clutter. Avoid adding apps just because they’re new, budget-friendly or popular. Be choosy when selecting your main digital collaboration tool and drop outdated tools and their non-functional uses (such as using email as a scheduling tool).
Challenge 4: You can’t mix methodologies.
Modern project management isn’t just about one methodology any more. Teams that were once using the Waterfall method are now asked to manage projects using Agile or mix both. Transitioning from one methodology to another or finding a productive way to blend two or more requires some preparation and research. Not knowing how to do this at all will certainly hinder project success, as well as impede your management style.
Solution: Find the best mix for your organisation.
When you mix methodologies, you aren’t forcing one to become something it’s not. Nor are you demanding that any team use a process that doesn’t work for them. Nearly half of project managers (44%) say Waterfall and Agile need to coexist. A leader’s job is to find tools that translate between the two, roll up data, report on everyone’s progress and incorporate teams into a different methodology.
You should also be aware of the pros and cons of each methodology. When mixing methodologies, it’s crucial to have training, buy-in, and clear translation.
Challenge 5: You don’t have a single platform for work.
You can’t afford for chaos to be any part of your processes or workday. Too much is at stake and there’s too little time to take our eyes off progress and productivity. It’s time for a new direction and a new approach to work: enterprise work management.
Solution: Enterprise work management.
Enterprise work management encompasses all types of work (planned and unplanned), methodologies (Agile and Waterfall) and users (technical and business). It is a holistic, enterprise-wide system that manages the entire lifecycle of work.
Enterprise work management focuses on visibility from the initial request to delivery and the measurement of tasks, issues, projects and more. It’s a single place to manage work requests, track work progress, manage resources, plan capacity, gather project data and provide visibility that can be easily customised to any audience.
Practical advice for project managers.
- Waiting is never a good option. Part of good stakeholder management is anticipating and dealing with problems before they become a big deal. Don’t wait until a problem is obvious — it’s often more difficult to solve the issue at that point.
- Always offer a solution. If you are going to bring up a problem without offering a potential solution, you might as well tell the stakeholders, “Fire me now.” As project manager, finding solutions is part of your job.
- Specify the actions required. If stakeholders need to act, don’t assume it will be obvious to them. Restate — in list form — what actions need to be taken and when.
- Always say yes. But make sure they understand how much “yes” costs. Sponsors and stakeholders don’t like to be told “no,” so don’t do it. Just make sure they understand the cost of their request, so they can judge for themselves whether or not “yes” is worth it.
- Don’t stop reporting. Perception is reality. If stakeholders perceive that you aren’t doing anything — you’re not. Don’t let your head be the next one on the chopping block. In most organisations, the stakeholders’ attention span is short. Long projects that require a lot of stakeholder patience tend to falter and ultimately fail. Providing value regularly, at short (3- to 4-week) intervals, keeps stakeholders engaged and interested.
How Adobe Workfront can help.
Effective project management is essential for driving productivity and achieving goals. By addressing common challenges and adopting tools that centralise workflows and enhance visibility, teams can work more efficiently. Discover how Adobe Workfront can help streamline your processes and empower your organisation to deliver results with confidence.
Take a product tour of Adobe Workfront or watch the overview video to learn more.
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