Why bother with project schedules, meetings, reports and forms?
Project Management Traps
I am often asked, “Why is project management important in my project?” Your organization may be small or large, public or private, old or new. You may be using projects on a daily basis to deliver customized products or services to your customers. Or you may be using them once in a while, such as to design and install a new computerized accounting system or to write and implement some new procedures.
Whatever your situation, your organization uses projects to get new things done. Some organizations do projects well, while others go from one disaster to the next, never seeming to learn the lessons of the past. Where does your organization fit?
- Do you find the solution delivered is not what was asked for?
- Are your projects continually over budget and running very late?
- Are team members frustrated by the constant demands to change the project parameters?
- Are team members and contractors stressed out by the mad panic to get things finished towards the end of a project?
- Is the end product or service riddled with errors and defects?
- Are you not sure why the project was started in the first place?
- Are project team members constantly arguing amongst themselves and with other employees?
- Do executives and senior managers show little interest in the project, even though it will benefit them?
- By the end of a project, is everyone burned out, vowing never to go on another?
Project Management Benefits
By applying project management principles and methods, you can avoid the common problems experienced above. If you answered “Yes” to some or all of these questions, you may need to consider introducing some discipline into the running of your projects. The discipline of Project Management is now relatively mature and can be applied successfully to any kind of project, small or large.
Through applying the principles and practice of good project management, you are more likely to:
- get your project done on time and within budget
- deliver a quality product or service that will delight your client and end users
- make sure that project team members will come away from the project with a sense of personal achievement and satisfaction.
