When was the last time that you performed a PMO quality check to determine the health of each project’s status within your portfolio? With mid-year quickly approaching, there couldn’t be a better time to determine how well your projects and programs are performing – especially if you have critical initiatives with dependencies to meet before the end of the year.
In my honest opinion and experience, program and project management should go beyond focusing on start and end dates. Sometimes, it takes going the extra mile to do the dirty work, or what I like to call “grabbing the bull by the horns”.
While there is no silver bullet for the execution of a perfect project, there are basic fundamentals that are often overlooked and lead to sleep deprivation for project sponsors. Managing a project shouldn’t feel like you’re continually trying to stick a square peg into a round hole and that there is no end in sight. Here are some of the common issues and risks that we’ve helped mitigate over the years:
Scope creep: It’s never fun when business and technical requirements change like the weather. Whether you’re a waterfall, agile, or “watergile” organization, properly vet your requirements, stick to them, and enhance post go-live.
Never-ending timelines: Dates slip, usually due to poor planning. My go-to is to plan, plan, plan again, and don’t forget to account for 10% slippage.
Lack of communication: Is your company a victim of organizational silos? Establish a communication plan upfront and hold people accountable to staying engaged and sticking to it.
Lack of resources: No one likes to wear multiple hats or to be part of an understaffed project team. Eliminate unnecessary burnout by augmenting when necessary. As you augment, build the capabilities within your organization to become self-sufficient after the project’s completion.
Vendor buy-in: Is your vendor a true partner, or are they just trying to get you across the finish line? Make sure your vendor and any other partners buy into your success, not theirs. When you’re successful, everything for everyone else will follow.
If your leadership meetings have become bi-weekly repetitive sessions of little to no progress, I guarantee you would benefit from working with a partner who excels at reviving projects and working under pressure. Check out our Project Management Services and see how you could benefit from working with a project partner, visit www.impresivhealth.com or send an email to jarbuthnott@impresivhealth.com.