- One Title, Many Roles
- Key Skills of Project Managers
- Qualities of Successful Project Managers
- 15 Common Mistakes of Project Managers
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
15 Common Mistakes of Project Managers
Although we review many of the common errors made in each of the fundamental areas of project management throughout this book (so you can avoid them), understanding the most common project management mistakes helps focus our efforts and helps us to avoid the same mistakes on our projects. The following are some of the most common mistakes made by project managers:
Not clearly understanding how or ensuring that the project is aligned with organizational objectives.
Not properly managing stakeholder expectations throughout the project.
Not gaining agreement and buy-in on project goals and success criteria from key stakeholders.
Not developing a realistic schedule that includes all work efforts, task dependencies, bottom-up estimates, and assigned leveled resources.
Not getting buy-in and acceptance on the project schedule.
Not clearly deciding and communicating who is responsible for what.
Not utilizing change control procedures to manage the scope of the project.
Not communicating consistently and effectively with all key stakeholders.
Not executing the project plan.
Not tackling key risks early in the project.
Not proactively identifying risks and developing contingency plans (responses) for those risks.
Not obtaining the right resources with the right skills at the right time.
Not aggressively pursuing issue resolution.
Inadequately defining and managing requirements.
Insufficiently managing and leading the project team.
The map in Figure 2.1 summarizes the main points we reviewed in this chapter.
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FIGURE 2.1 Project manager overview.