What are the main issues with project management?

Fyre Festival is a perfect recent example of this, with thousands of dollars being wasted on securing sexy advertising combined with a complete lack of infrastructure led to a situation that left partygoers stranded and the rest of us wondering how the organisers could have let things get so far.

The High Speed 2 (HS2) railway line between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, is another example of this, being dubbed the most ‘extravagant infrastructure project in British history’, which is now thought to cost an extra £15bn over the projected amount of £55bn. Last year the Department of Transport’s scheme to integrate its IT offices into a shared services centre – and supposedly save taxpayers £57m – ended up costing £81m.

Budgets spiralling well past their cap, timing delays, scheduling complications: no matter what industry you work in, project management issues seem to be a constant. These stories of engineering projects costing triple the anticipated amount and infrastructure projects dragging on for years are rife – but why? 

The study reveals main causes of project management issues:
With the 500 professionals companies in the IT, Telecoms, Marketing and Engineering sectors conducted for software provider Access Group, it was revealed that more than 75% of projects overrun due to ‘a lack of resource’ and ‘poor time management.’

Among the key findings: 

•  Only 25 respondents were able to say that less than 10% of their projects stayed on schedule
•  15% of respondents claimed that a lack of tools was the main reason for projects overrunning
•  The East of England was found to be the least efficient amongst the regions, with their projects overrunning between 91-100% of the time.

In addition, they also spoke to industry experts within the engineering and marketing industries to get their take on project management processes within their field. 

Steve Berridge, Director, Access Group commented: “Utilisation is a key metric within any project based company. It’s important to understand the individuals within the organisation and where they’re spending their time to make sure their time is focussed on fee related activity rather than non-fee related activity, such as internal meetings and proposal writing. Too many organisations can recruit more than they need, therefore bringing in more cost to a business without considering utilisation first.” 

You can see more from Steve below.

So how can managers keep their projects on time and within budget? Here are five processes and tricks to help projects run as timely and smoothly as possible.

1. As part of your scope of work, take the time to tease out various complications and create a plan for what to do in each case. Try to evaluate the realistic likelihood of each happening, and make sure everyone involved is on board to minimise the possibility of future conflict.
2. Grand Designs presenter and architectural critic Kevin McCloud knows a thing or two about project management. Although his expertise lies in home improvement and design, his advice can be applied to almost any project. In order to avoid cost overruns, he says in an interview with The Guardian stated: ‘If you are disciplined, add 20% to your budget. If you are not disciplined, then add 59%.’ Even if you consider yourself a highly organised, efficient manager, unforeseen bumps in the road can be costly, and it’s important to factor those in.
3. Continue to track and check progress against the end goals or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). If you are constantly measuring the project’s current status, you’re more likely to catch mistakes early on or identify situations before they become a problem.
4. Miscommunications can contribute to project delays or complications, so it’s important to establish and maintain clear communication between all parties involved. Agree on a preferred method or channel – whether that be a weekly call or a monthly progress report or both – and make sure everyone sticks to it.
5. Be it for project costing or timekeeping, make sure you equip yourself with the proper tools – and ensure you’ve factored in any additional software costs into your budget. Time shouldn’t be spent re-organising data or correcting organisational mistakes, and the right software can help save time and money in the long run. For example, during the migration to the shared services centre, the government did not track extensions to contracts that extended past deadlines, therefore couldn’t accurately grasp how overbudget the project ran. A tool that measured projected costs against actual costs – and regularly comparing both – could have flagged the issue before it became a problem

Unfortunately, there isn’t a fool-proof technique to ensure all projects run without a hitch– after all, ‘to err is human’, as the old saying goes. However, keeping these strategies in mind can help avoid unanticipated – and potentially expensive – complications.