There will be a wide range of challenges facing Project Managers and you are required to possess a number of skills and qualities around communication, decision making, delegation and risk taking – to name but a few. However, most importantly – and sometimes overlooked – they are expected to deal with the day-to-day challenges that arise from managing projects, tasks, resources, time and budget.
As part of this blog post we researched the typical challenges a Project Manager meets while a project is in motion. Here are our findings:
Biggest Challenges facing Project Managers
Team Issues:
When you are dealing with people, you will have lots of personalities that may require some amount of management, especially if this is causing a high amount of incompatibiliy amongst the team. These disagreements, and difference of opinions, can have quite a high impact on the progress of the project.
Project Resources:
As a Project Manager you need to be accountable for your resources. Your success depends on your resources success. This can be extremely challenging, especially when you are dealing with a large number of resources. There is no easy way in dealing with this, the only way is to learn how you can manage the resources so that you can get the best out of them.
Authority:
The Project Manager is the leader of their assigned projects and resources. However, in some cases the PM may not be seen as an authority figure even though it is their job to be responsible and to track everyone’s work. Any issues around authority should be dealt with immediately and appropriately so that there are no knock effects on the project.
Budget Control:
For the most part, the Project Manager will not have control of the project budget, they will be given a number from which they work from. The Project Manager is expected to keep the project within that budget, even though they didn’t have any input into the initial figure that was put in place.
Virtual Work:
As a Project Manager within a multi-national company you may have to manage a team that is spread out across the world. These virtual teams bring with them their own challenges, from the very simple; such as time zones, to the more complex language barriers.
Scope Creep:
Last but certainly not least is scope creep. This is probably one of the biggest challenges that a Project Manager will face during a project. It is extremely important to act on this when it does happen and take the appropriate steps in order to refocus to the new direction.
How can Cora help?
We offer a highly configurable project and portfolio management solution which can be designed and implemented for any organization, helping address challenges facing Project Managers. If you would like a demonstration on how implementing Cora PPM could benefit your organization, please enter your details below
