4 Clear Symptoms That Your Project Management Process Is Broken

Welcome to the concluding part of ‘4 Clear Symptoms That Your Project Management Process Is Broken’. The first part introduced to the first reason for failure of project management process. Project manager is unable to get right visibility into status of various activities in a project. Neither he could clearly know – what his resource are working on.

In this post we will explore 3 more symptoms of bigger problems you are facing today – symptoms that your project management process is broken

Your boss is pressing you for status reports every alternate day

It is funny when we see some senior manager keep asking status update for the same thing again and again within short span of time. Sometimes people are habitual (without realizing zilch value it gains from such follow up), sometimes they are just being part of follow-them-up down-right-ladder. You realize that it is the most annoying thing when ‘30% of working time, employees have to spend on collecting, searching information’. If we speak of project manager (poor man), spends more than this amount of time, gathering information to collate project status report. On top of this, your boss, you customer is asking you about progress reports.

Why you have to invest time in just gathering information when it can be done without your intervention or follow up? Really what you should have is Information Radiators. Let them (stakeholder) see required information from a central platform whenever they need it. In absence of such information radiators, you will run into spirals to collect, collate, present without adding any value to projects. Thus it is a clear symptom that your project management process is broken.

Your project data is scattered in discrete tools without giving any integrated view

As I mentioned earlier – you need an information radiator; the basic premise of information radiator or having single platform is to get project visibility at one place. Instead what do we see? If your team is using different set of tools like project planning tool, project tracking software, issue management software, time tracking tool, expense management, sharing/managing documents, change request management, project meeting, risk management software, etc. – how are you supposed to get a holistic view of project? Your team is using tools which work in silos and how can there be seamless communication or integration of project information.

The biggest culprit is email. Unfortunately email is the most commonly (mis-)used tool to manage project activities including sharing documents, collecting status update. This is yet another reason that contributes toward failure of project management process.

You are bombarded with ad hoc requests every day

If you have noticed it already – you keep spending nearly 50% of your time in entertaining ad hoc requests.

– Be it about submitted some report to your boss by evening or

– Your sub-ordinate/team members asking you to escalate some issues with other team or

– Review some document, your customer is asking you to join a call with end-user or

– Look into some issue s/he is facing.

Mind you these requests are not just popping up in emails but also over phone calls.

How bad is that? You can’t stop these ad hoc work request or change request but the question is how do you manage these? Do you have any process to manage these requests? It means are heading towards a situation where your project management process is broken.

Your Organisation Needs Work Management Solution

Before it becomes too chaotic to manage projects, you need a reliable information radiator that enables integrated work management approach for your project delivery. You would certainly like to make your project management more predictable, consistent and repeatable. I’d request you to have a look at ZilicusPM project management software.

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Additional readings about project management, leadership

• Case Study: What Happens When Project Team Has Dual Reporting
• Avoid These 10 Most Common Mistakes That Leads to Project Failure
• Back2Basics: Ultimate Project Management Guide: Project Planning
• Ultimate Guide to Select The Right Project Management Software
• 8 Reasons to Decide Whether Your Organization Needs Project Management Office

Your life can be become easier with the right project management system. ZilicusPM is the right PM tool for you and your team. Get started now.

About Zilicus

Zilicus offers the best project portfolio management tool ZilicusPM, with robust project management tools capabilities and easy ways to track project management KPI,

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