On Requirements and Estimates

“What obstacles do project managers face to successful completion of an Information Technology project?”

Technology Management; Technology Infrastructure

I agree that most project has some unique obstabcles, all project that i have worked with or been aware of have had 3 common problems

1. Incomplete requirements or lack of visibility to full requirements
2. Poor estimation of effort
3. Scope creep

MüTō Observation:

These are three very common problems. I often find that a project manager's inability to communicate clearly, encourage proper motivation, and hold others accountable is at the core of all three of the problems you listed.

On Clients and Scope Creep

“What obstacles do project managers face to successful completion of an Information Technology project?”

Technology strategy leader: private equity fund

The biggest obstacles I encounter in implementing technology projects are

1) client commitment to participating in the project definition process and
2) change in scope along the way, which is always caused by #1.

These obstacles can be avoided through frank and up-front discussion with the client of worst case scenarios and establishment of firm milestones that track a project progress.

If the client isn't participating (skips or cancels meetings or progress reviews, refusals to make decisions to guide the project), it's time to let the client know that they are causing the project to slip and make it clear what they need to do to get it back on track.

None of this is easy -- it takes lots an lots of open, honest communication to make a project a success.

MüTō Observation:

The ability to Communicate clearly to everyone on a project, the ability to Motivate a proejct team to hold the project MOST important, and the ability of a project manager to hold all the parties of a project accountable, are tantamount to a project manager's successful completion of a project.

On Champions

“What obstacles do project managers face to successful completion of an Information Technology project?”

Manager; Ebusiness Applications

I have found that for a PM and a project in general to be successful, the project needs a dedicated champion from the business side. If this Champion cannot be 100% behind the project, and does not have the authority or capability to make key decisions when issues come up, the PM will be a lame sitting duck and the project suffer cost overruns and delays.

MüTō Observation:

Its the Project Manager's responsibility to see to it that the Champion stay's focused, and accountable.

On Project Completion

“What obstacles do project managers face to successful completion of an Information Technology project?”

Project Management and IT Professional

Successful completion for me does not mean a project was delivered on time or on budget it means that the projects goals were accomplished. A successful project is one that produced deliverables which met or exceeded the stated business goals.

For me the biggest obstacle to a successful project is the misstatement, understatement or misunderstanding of goals. I have worked at many companies and completed many projects and most of the stated business goals dont always seem to make it to the Project Manager. Often times the goal presented to the PM is "implement this" instead of achieve goals 1,2,3 through the implementation "of this" which goes to explain what the business is really trying to achieve. I am often forced to re-interview the stakeholders to be able to produce a statement of goals that is shared with and periodically reviewed with the project team.

Other common obstacles:

Scope creep – this is fairly common and is caused primarily by a poor understanding of the goals which causes scope statements to be incomplete. Typically discovery of this is not made until much later and almost always results in more work. The addition of business goals on the other hand is also creep but schedules can and should be renegotiated to accommodate.

Resource allocations – Ask any PM is she or he has ever had too many technical resources on a project. Chances are no. Often times other factors are used to set target delivery dates when the actual primary driver should be the availability of resources.

Schedules – There is never enough time or resources to meet project schedules and this often results in poor work. Quality and innovation always suffer the most from this. If there is barely enough time to check in the often buggy code, how innovative do you think it will be.
There are many other obstacles of course but do feel free to contact me to discuss.

MüTō Observation:

For example, the basic inability of a project manager to communicate clearly can lead to 'scope-creep', and a misunderstanding of the requirements, or worse yet, the loss of understanding of what the 'danged business objective is!'

Its tantamount that a Project Manager understand the business objective; At least in its native form. It may be a big leap between the understanding, and their particular project, but at least they would know WHY the project is important, and then they can communicate that importance to the rest of the team. Without that understanding the entire team would be working in a vacuum, and could never be properly motivated.