The simple question is where and why things can go wrong and how to prevent that from happening.

In the software development industry, there was a joke that the customer can only choose two solutions, three features; lower cost, performance and reliability. Unfortunately, however, the prank has become a fairly normal and routine requirement for customers.

There was a report called “The Chaos Report” published by the Standish Group in 1995 about IT project failures. According to the report, 31% of all software projects are canceled before completion, 53% of them face delays and cost overruns, and only about 16% are successful. Furthermore, the average software project is 222% late, 189% over budget, and delivers only 61% of the required functionality—a worrying statistic, not much has changed to this day. Fortunately, it turns out that this scenario can be prevented.

Due to some major issues, most of which can be attributed to poor project management. The following are seven of the most serious pitfalls and pitfalls that a project manager should avoid in order to give the project and the team a better chance of success.

Bad communication

Normally everyone, including me, has been a part of various projects where our client asks for something and we give something else. It’s just because of bad communication. Communication is a very important part that holds everything together in its place. Good communication ensures that all stakeholders (users), customers, developers, sponsors are on the same page. It is necessary that the objectives of the project are clear, common and well understood; assumptions are kept to a minimum and project progress is properly communicated. Everything has to be in the right place, like risks and delays and consistency changes and everything. The importance of communication cannot be stressed.

Project managers must spend 90% of their time communicating with the team.

Requirements Analysis / Finding / Definition

It is based on several things such as scope, cost, need, schedule resources, and quality. You must hear that the weak base is always risky in the future. Most project managers run away and try to implement the project without any proper requirements research. In this type of process they lost effort, time and implementation costs. The studio and senior project management guys proved that spending a week analyzing requirements in the early stages is better than going back to work in the future.

inadequate planning

Detailed and efficient planning is not an easy task, but believe me it is totally rewarding. I’m not saying that people don’t plan their projects, but even so we feel that the level of planning is insufficient. It is often neglected, but some managers use the same project plan for all projects that might have a different focus.

Planning each and every aspect of the project in full detail from start to finish could only work if one has a crystal ball. In the real world, most projects, by definition, are supposed to build progressively, that is, the project builds and becomes clearer over time. The suggested solution in such cases is to employ a continuous wave planning technique that recommends performing a high-level rough estimate of the project and a detailed estimate of the project and detailed estimates only for the requirements and activities that are being worked on.

People Management

The team is always a great asset for project managers. They must be fully motivated, focused and organized, the team may even achieve unrealistic goals. It is required to know each member of the team in terms of skills and the best use of it; with proper delegation, empowerment and an enabling environment, the whole could actually be greater than the sum of its parts. Currently, human resource management has become a very important part of project management.

Acquiescence

Stop, you can’t accept any user requests or sponsor directives without a lot of protest or negotiation. This also means accepting unrealistic demands and deadlines from the start, despite being aware of the end result. Effective and efficient negotiation can lead your project to success.

repeat previous mistakes

The astonishing repetition of ineffective practices and mistakes is the main reason why projecting the world keeps failing. To be honest, the general stuff is very well documented, but not many seem to benefit from it. Each organization has its own environment, limitations and methodologies and in several of them there are no processes to record the lessons learned from the projects carried out in the past.

Documentation of lessons learned should be carried out throughout the life of the project and should be consolidated at the end. And if a project falls flat or ends up being cancelled, an autopsy is crucial.

IT projects today have become a fundamental part of our infrastructure and our lives. The stakes are high for each of them—large investments, organizational strategies, careers, and reputations. There will always be some level of failure and it is probably essential to progress. however, most failures that do occur are preventable. These six deadly mistakes are core areas where things can go wrong. Removing them may not guarantee success on every project, but it will ensure the removal of as many obstacles as possible.