Do you find project management to be a master juggling act?

Whether you’re working through team issues, assuaging a client, resisting scope creep or encountering the unexpected, there’s always something coming at you.

With so many balls in the air, you’ve probably more than once wished you had a third arm!

The good news is, whether you’re working to keep costs down, stay on schedule, or deliver premium service, there is a solution to every challenge.

Let’s look at some key challenges in project management, and the steps to take to overcome them.

1. No Clarity Around Project Goals

Sometimes a company is so intent on bidding and winning a big project that they put no focus into carrying it out. Building the team and looking into particulars is treated like an afterthought. The scope isn’t laid out and the team doesn’t even quite understand what it’s working toward.

When a project manager goes into a project blind, a whole lot could go wrong. With no clear goal in mind, the team may well meander down side alleys, causing the project to go way over budget. Or the team may not have all of the necessary skills, resulting in a subpar deliverable and an unhappy client.

How to Handle It

The role of the project manager is to oversee and monitor a project. You’ve been hired to both get into the weeds and see the big picture at the same time.

Generally the leader isn’t interested in all the minutia, and so it falls to you to create a comprehensive plan. Gather as many details as possible in order to understand the what, the how, the when, and the why of the project. Be sure to have clarity around things like the budget, the skills needed, the timeline, and any risks the project may have.

Once you have a clear understanding, the next step in the planning process is to communicate everything to the team and the stakeholders at an all-hands-on-deck meeting. Make sure everyone understands the overall goal and the timeline. Select a software system that allows everyone to keep abreast of what’s going on and stay on the same page throughout the project.

When the team knows what the objective is from day one, it’s easier to manage expectations. Both you and they know what the project is all about.

2. Too Many Communication Tools and Preferences

At the beginning of a project, it’s easy to make expectations clear and have everyone working from the same platform. However, as the project progresses into weeks and even months, people have a tendency to slide into their preferred ways of doing things. You may have a trio who communicates with voice messages, while others exclusively use text or email.

When communication gets siloed, and decisions are made on a variety of platforms, it means that not everyone is “in” on what’s going on. This creates lag, as time is wasted bringing everyone up to speed.

How to Handle It

It’s never easy to draw people out of their habits and tendencies, but a project manager’s role is to consistently monitor the project all the way to its completion. Course correction is part of the game.

Take some time at the beginning of a project to select an effective and easy-to- use communication platform. When you see team members veering away and using other apps, don’t be shy about tapping them on the shoulder to bring them back in line.

Set a strong example by consistently using the central tool yourself, and post all critical information there.

When a team understands how central communication benefits the entire team, it’s easier to get them to cooperate.

3. The Project Keeps Getting Bigger…and Bigger

After a project is well underway, it’s not uncommon for a client to have a chat with a team member and ask for a few extra features to the final deliverable. Or maybe the boss, mid-way through, sends a quick text asking you if the team could take on another small task.

In the interest of being agreeable and going with the flow, it’s really easy to say “sure, no problem” to these small requests.

Pretty much every project experiences some level of scope creep. As the name implies, scope creep isn’t about making one or two big changes, but is more about making lots and lots of small changes to the deliverable. When these small changes add up, they have a huge impact on the project’s overall cost, schedule, and performance.

Too much scope creep spells disaster. It means the team has to get pretty scrappy toward the end of a project. Everyone works overtime, performance is sloppy, and people work on tasks not at all in their skill set. People aren’t duly compensated for their work, and team morale declines.

How to Handle It

In order to keep a project’s cost, schedule and performance on track, a project manager needs to have a system in place for handling scope creep.

First of all, it’s necessary to create clear demarcations about the different types of added tasks. Some changes won’t really affect a project’s cost or timeline at all. In these instances, it’s usually ok for someone to give them a green light.

However, when an added task affects a project’s budget and timeline, there needs to be protocol in place to submit the change for approval. A system that permits one team member to simply verbally agree to a task which would entail hours of additional labor from the entire team isn’t going to cut it.

Evaluating each task individually allows the leader and the project manager to judiciously decide whether or not it should be approved.

Scope creep is kind of a gray area, so at the onset, be sure everyone on the team understands what sort of tasks constitute scope creep, as well as the process for getting additional tasks approved

Communicating effectively with the client is also an important aspect of scope creep. It’s important to address requests with some flexibility, while also keeping the project on track.

The solution to handling scope creep, oftentimes, is about good processes and communication.

4. The Team Lacks Necessary Skills

When a project requires specialized skills, oftentimes the team doesn’t have the expertise they need. Or, maybe some people have received training, but don’t have any on-the-job experience.

Significant skill-gaps means that a project cannot be completed, or that the deliverable is below standard.

How to Handle It

A satisfied and happy client is every project’s end-goal, and so paying attention to skill and performance levels is as important as winning the job.

A skill assessment needs to take place at the beginning of the project. When the project manager sits down with the leader to go through everything, it’s necessary to make a detailed account of all the skills required to complete the job.

At this point, you can build a skills matrix, which looks at everyone on the team, and aligns them with all the tasks required. Using this matrix, it’s easy to spot gaps and weak areas, and develop a plan to address them.

Here are a few ways to go about strengthening a project’s skill base:

• Provide training in new skills that are necessary for completing the project.
• In instances where only one team member possesses a critical skill, implement the practice of pairing. This is where two people work alongside each other on the same task. Pairing strengthens the skill base of the team, as it trains multiple people in the same skill. This way, when one person is absent, others can pick up the slack.
• Identify the skills and tasks that require a freelancer or independent contractor, and look into hiring them.

With a little foresight, it’s possible to overcome gaps in your team’s skill set and to build a highly skilled team equipped to complete the project.

5. An Ever-Changing Team

As discussed, a project that requires specialized skills often means hiring independent contractors and freelancers. These part-time employees always have commitments to other jobs and organizations, meaning you never have their full attention.

It’s easy for team enthusiasm to wane when everyone isn’t 100% committed to a project. When a freelancer feels sidelined from team activities, it weakens collaborative tasks, and it could result in subpar deliverables.

How to Handle It

Building a cohesive team is a hard-won achievement for any project manager. Having a freelancing onboarding process and utilizing team building activities are key.

Whenever possible, hire freelancers yourself, and take some time orienting them to the team and the project. Bringing them up to speed on what the company is about ensures their work aligns to its brand, mission and values. In order to clearly communicate job expectations, have face-to-face conversations about what you’re looking for. This helps to clear up all questions and concerns.

Explain the processes and tools that the team uses to communicate. Set them up with messaging and email accounts when necessary.

Even when people are moving in and out of a project, it’s still possible, and very important, to build camaraderie amongst the base. This collaborative spirit really improves performance.

A daily scrum or standup, where the team discusses issues, and progress, keeps everyone abreast of what’s going on. Including icebreakers or casual chats as a part of meetings builds rapport as well.

6. Diverse and Distributed Teams

Most teams are composed of people from all sorts of backgrounds and skill sets, including engineers, marketers, graphic designers, and people from completely different cultures, with varying levels of English fluency.

If all this diversity doesn’t pose enough of a communication challenge, more and more teams have become distributed. Face-to-face conversations take place rarely, if at all.

This diversity and fragmentation can lead to communication breakdown, which poses a real threat to a project. Key decisions aren’t communicated across the team, and snafus run rampant. Sometimes, a client learns about problems from a third party, causing them to lose faith in the project manager and the team.

How to Handle It

Communication is at the heart of a project manager’s role. Processes that create channels of communication allows a project to keep on schedule, and performance levels stay high.

One process for healthy communication is a daily scrum. At these meetings, everyone explains how they are progressing, and identifies anything that is blocking them from getting things done, or slowing things down. A team might adopt the mantra of “no blockers,” meaning it decides to switch to another task while it waits for an obstacle to be removed.

It’s important to conduct the scrum in an open environment, where people are able to share frustrations and get everything out in the open.

Another healthy communication method for a distributed team is an ongoing chat, where people post daily updates and status reports on the project. The project manager keeps these chats active by checking in daily, and regularly responding to messages. This practice also keeps everyone working from the same software platform.

Regular status updates with a client keeps them abreast of everything that’s going on with a project. It’s way better for the client to hear about a snafu from the project manager than a third party. So even if the news is hard to deliver, it’s necessary to keep the channel of communication open.

7. Teams Conflict With the Leader

Sometimes, during the course of a project, the team and the boss are on completely different pages. Maybe the team isn’t at all on board with the marketing plan, or it believes the product isn’t going to benefit the end user.

Performance declines when people are not emotionally invested in the project. And if the deliverable really is subpar, then the client won’t be satisfied, either.

How to Handle It

A project manager acts as a liaison between the team and the leader. It can feel like swaying back and forth on a seesaw at times.

When a project manager notices a real disconnect between the team and the leader, the first step is to determine if the problem merits the leader’s attention. Is this just the sentiments of one or two people, or the entire team? Additionally, are the grievances backed up by data?

It’s not always easy to bring a challenging or unexpected message to a boss, but any good leader wants to understand how the team feels about a project.

When having a difficult conversation, it’s important to keep them one-on-one if possible, and plan your message ahead of time.

Once you’ve said your piece, it’s in the leader’s hands to decide what to do with the information.

8. A Difficult Client

Clients have been known to make excessive demands. Maybe they want to meet with you every day, or impose deadlines that the team simply cannot meet. Sometimes, a client constantly wants to talk about increasing the scope of a project.

A difficult or demanding client is a recipe for overwork and burnout. Meeting all of their requests means that the project is well over cost and schedule.

How to Handle It

In the same way that a client is picky when choosing a team, it’s important for a team to be picky about choosing a client. Your client impacts your mental health, and that of the team.

Finding a good fit is a learning process. You may have to work with a few difficult clients before you’re able to identify what to look for.

It’s important to set boundaries with the client at the onset. Make sure that the work and scope of the project are mapped out, and explain the protocol for introducing new tasks to the scope. Perhaps this means filling out a change order or something like that.

The initial conversations, before a contract has been signed, is the time to look for clues as to whether the client will respect your boundaries.

After a time, it becomes easier to identify red flags. For example, when a client skimps and haggles over the contract, it could be a harbinger of difficulties to come. You want someone who respects the skills and time of the team, and is willing to pay the price.

9. Staying on Schedule

It’s really easy to get held up on a project and to spend two weeks working on something that was supposed to only take one. When delays add up, just like scope creep, they make a huge impact on a project’s overall timeline.

A company pays a toll when it doesn’t meet deadlines. It may well lead to an unhappy client. Plus, it keeps the team from taking on more projects, which translates into less income for the team.

How to Handle It

The project manager’s role is to monitor a project and keep it on schedule. In order to achieve this, it’s helpful to have a system or two in place.

A burndown (or burnup) chart is an effective way to plot the entire scope of work for a project alongside its timeline. It plots total work on the vertical and time on the horizontal. The burndown chart provides the team, client, and the leader an easy visual to understand how the project is proceeding versus its schedule.

Regular check-ins with the team are important for staying on track. At the meeting, be sure to discuss anything that’s impeding progress, and also make sure the team has the tools and skills it needs to do the job.

When the project manager knows about things that slow the team down, he or she can work to remove and fix them.

Staying on schedule is tricky for any project, and consistent monitoring, along with good systems, is key.

10. Facing the Unexpected

Every project throws a pitch or two that you don’t see coming. Maybe you’re in construction, and there’s a huge storm that delays everything for a week. Or else a team member has an unplanned absence that holds everything up.

Whiffing at too many unanticipated curve balls means a project is sure to strike out. Tasks won’t be completed, creating huge delays, and the project won’t meet its deadline.

How to Handle It

Although you never know what a project may bring, it really is possible to plan for the unexpected. One critical step in a project’s planning process is sitting down with the leader at the beginning and brainstorming all the risks.

Depending on your project, risks could include things like weather, equipment failures, and licensing regulations. When there’s too many hang ups in these areas, things won’t move forward.

When you look closely at each risk, it’s possible to develop a plan for course correction.

Additionally, take a close look at the team to ensure that the skill base is strong. Consider providing training in areas that look weak.

As far as the budget is concerned, it’s always smart to set aside as much as 10% for the unexpected. If you don’t use it, then completing the project under budget will be a feather in your cap.

Mitigating risk is all about putting a plan in place beforehand. This way, when you encounter a fastball, you’ll be ready to knock it out of the park.

The pillars of project management success go beyond factors such as appropriate work-process systems, collective team knowledge, and strategic decision-making. These are not the only elements that contribute to effective project management.

Project management can be a nuanced process, often requiring a customized and structured workflow to ensure successful, high-quality outcomes for an organization. Understandably, the role of a Project Manager (PM) and the individuals on a team play a vital role in shepherding this entire process from beginning to end.

The Pillars For Project Management Success

A pillar is defined as a “fundamental precept”, giving way to firm principles and practices. The pillars of any rule or vision statement upheld by an organization always provide a sense of strength, unity, and clear identity. Project management in the workplace is no different. The processes of workflow practices need well-defined pillars to support both the technical and abstract aspects of project management.

Systems and processes are integral to project management, however, in order to achieve success, project management often relies on more intangible factors, more closely resembling soft skills. For example, a new hire with exceptional hard skills in computer programming has the ability to bring a robust amount of information and methodologies to their new team. However, without clear guiding principles about the goals of the assignments, organized and thoughtful processes, room to think creatively, and growing doubts about the team’s capabilities to operate as a cohesive unit, the knowledge potentially stays stagnant. Important milestones fall through the cracks, communication within the team isn’t as fully collaborative, or hiccups in the workflow process are met with less compassion.

The company not only risks losing a valuable employee but also increases the amount of turnover to other organizations that prioritize the need to create and nurture the building blocks of project management.

These pillars can make or break project workflow, no matter the scope or level of talent from the people involved. It’s what holds the project together, not only supporting the team in carrying out the basic objectives of the assignment, but also guiding them in making productive and meaningful contributions.

Here are the five essential pillars that are the foundation of project management.

Project Management Pillar #1: Vision

A company’s vision for the present and the future is an important aspect of project management. Not only does a vision share what the company would like to do to operate better, but it also gives an undeniable visual about where the company wants to be in a few years. In order to create strong team alignment, creating a company vision that inspires and motivates its employees must be done at the leadership level. This is the first pillar of project management because of its focus on workplace transparency. Without a clear path forward, employees won’t understand where the company is going or how their efforts contribute to the overall goal.

Organizations that prioritize workplace transparency tend to have stronger employee engagement, communication, and positive work culture, according to Glassdoor.

So what does this mean for project management?

When employees are aligned with the company’s vision, their morale is significantly improved, and they’re more likely to sustain high levels of performance than those without this crucial element. With this understanding comes inspired ideas to help make the vision happen, which includes innovative project management creation based on a company’s project needs. According to Indeed, vision statements often serve as a guide when employees encounter various challenges.

It’s also essential to understand that a company’s vision isn’t limited to internal staff. This is something that can be shared with external clients, customers, and prospective employees to help with their understanding of the organization’s purpose.

For example, if a company has a clear vision that it shares on its website, this can act as a type of strategic recruitment strategy. Potential candidates will be drawn to the positive and buzzing workplace culture that a vision can so aptly describe. This also helps organizations stand out by setting themselves apart from their competitors by providing a firm sense of commitment to an employee’s wellbeing and supportive work culture. A vision prioritizes the development of an employee but also focuses on the company’s values and core business objectives.

A vision can attract top talent to the organization, whose own personal goals align with the company’s, which is important for long-term retention. As effective project management does require the team to have a high level of skill in order to function properly, having a vision that attracts these types of performers is vital to success.

Project Management Pillar #2: Collaboration

One of the most important aspects of project management is the idea that everyone has the ability to contribute to the process equally and fairly. Collaboration in the workplace is important for a wide variety of reasons:

• Leverages the wide range of talent on the team for maximum impact
• Enables the team to think creatively
• Brings everyone together ensuring high productivity
• Achieves the teams’ goals faster
• Improves overall performance of the company
• Empowers the team to learn from each other, sharpening existing skills and learning valuable new ones
• Fosters a sense of belonging
• Promotes more innovative problem-solving
• Increases sense of purpose
• Gets the team on the same page
• Leads to more strategic and thoughtful decision-making

These are all essential, contributing factors to successful project management, especially when it comes to decision-making, which keeps the project moving and the entire team on track. Leaders and teams must work together to coordinate, execute, and monitor the projects they’re working on. Especially with larger, more complex assignments that need buy-in across several departments, collaboration amongst teams must be one of the stronger skill sets. Throughout the process, the team can work together and be more aware of each other’s unique perspectives, needs, and deadlines.

Collaboration also helps create more inspired ideas when problems arise during the project’s life cycle. The team works together to identify the problem, have a meaningful dialogue, and come up with an agreed-upon solution. Without this level of collaboration, projects cannot be delivered with high-quality outcomes. Projects tend to remain stuck or delayed until a solution can present itself.

Project Management Pillar #3: Flexibility

Flexibility is a vital pillar of project management. As with many projects in the workplace, circumstances can change over time, which could potentially derail timelines and deliverables. Leadership, the PM, and the relevant team members should remain flexible and adapt to the situation when there’s a disruption to the normal process. Here are a few reasons why flexibility is important in project management:

• Anticipate the unexpected – In project management, there is a systemized workflow process that helps guide the team to the intended goal. This happens to make the vast majority of employees more comfortable as there is familiarity in established processes. However, an effective PM plans the project expecting change, anticipating deviations from the standard practice. Depending on the project needs, the team can hold tightly to the process, with short bursts to reprioritize, rework, or come up with other solutions to the problem, or, as the project moves forward, the team can have meaningful conversations as problems manifest.
• Put the team first – Flexibility puts the people first. While the idea is to assess the issue at hand, a PM needs to check in and evaluate the workload of the team. This ensures smooth coordination and continued communication as the PM works to keep the project on track. It’s important to understand that drastic shifts in processes can negatively affect employees, especially if there’s an increasing amount of change all at once. Keeping the team together during challenges is crucial to project management success.
• Foster dedication – Even with regular changes in workflow processes, a dedicated team member will continually “keep up” with any new developments and contribute to innovative problem-solving. The more flexible the team is the more dedication to a project the organization is likely to get even in during challenging times.

Project Management Pillar #4: Accountability

Accountability is another important aspect of project management. An individual is accountable for their contributions and will be the intended receipt of the good (or bad) consequences of their work. They are responsible for their own decisions, actions, and results. This ensures that a PM avoids micromanaging individuals on a team, which can create a variety of interpersonal issues. An effective PM empowers the team to uphold their responsibilities to the project.

Project Management Pillar #5: Trust

Trust works in a few distinct ways in project management:

• The team is able to rely on each other
• Allows team members to focus on their tasks with minimal distractions
• Encourages continued collaboration
• Has a positive effect on an employee’s physical and mental well-being in the workplace
• Supports high productivity
• Creates transparency
• Demonstrates respect
• Focuses on what the team can do to improve, and not linger on mistakes

Trust often comes with time, patience, and experience. The PM and the team usually find their rhythm after a few cycles of working together, but ultimately, it can have reverberating effects on the success of not only the project, but the professional development of the staff as well.

Productive project management can drive a company towards success, giving employees a clear, easy-to-follow path towards completing their work objectives in a highly efficient manner. If done strategically, project management can keep everyone on track, including upper management, and create much-needed transparency in business processes.

To be able to create realistic goals in line with the company’s vision and still retain flexibility for any unseen circumstances during the project’s life cycle, making effective decisions is crucial to adhere to a structure that keeps the team’s momentum moving forward.

The decision-making process in project management can heavily influence the success employees feel as individuals (and as a team) or, unfortunately, create a litany of workflow issues and interpersonal misunderstandings.

Importance Of Decision-Making In Project Management

There are many reasons why the decision-making process is important to project management:

• Lessens the risk of continued project delays or, in worst cases, delivery of an unfinished assignment
• Takes into account unexpected hurdles and seamlessly keeps the progress of the project going
• Sets up individuals on the team for success in the part of the project they own
• Reduces the amount of overwhelm employees feel by providing achievable deadlines and clarity on relevant processes
• Leverages the various talents on the team so they can operate within their zone of genius and produce high-quality work within the scheduled timeline
• Provides an organized structure that’s easy for everyone to understand and follow
• Helps clarify the goals of the project from start to finish
• Keeps the workflow focused so the team can achieve essential milestones
• Avoids costly mistakes due to repetitive project failures

Strategic decisions in project management are made with these four vital factors in mind:

1. The goals of the project – What are the milestones that need to be achieved from the beginning of the project to the very end?
2. The resources available – Who on the team will be responsible for particular tasks? What platforms, budget, services, and communication channels are available to the organization, ensuring collaboration and idea-sharing is an easy process?
3. The intended outcome – With this project, what do we want to achieve? What does success look like? And what type of value does the organization want to provide?
4. The value the result will have on the company overall – How does it impact the organization’s bottom line? Are the goals of the various projects in line with the company’s big-picture mission?

These are key elements of the decision-making process in project management. However, these types of decisions can create challenges for those involved with leading and managing various company initiatives.

Challenges of Decision-Making In Project Management

According to PMI’s “Pulse of the Profession: High Cost of Low Performance,” only 42% of organizations report high alignment with or projects to organizational business strategy. As little as 32% of organizations report that their projects are better aligned than previous years. In other words, if the goals of the project don’t align with the company’s overall strategy, the less success there will be for that organization.

To help overcome some of the inevitable challenges with project management, it’s important to understand the barriers that block efficient decision-making in the workplace:

• Engagement with PM tools – Much of this comes down to how familiar and comfortable employees are with using the company’s chosen systems, allowing for more streamlined project management. Using new technology and adapting to its various updates is a familiar challenge in the workplace. To combat this, training and development should remain a top priority for new and more senior team members to keep their knowledge up-to-date. If a team cannot keep up with evolving technology, they’ll fall behind quickly, unable to properly use these resources to their (and the company’s) benefit. For example, when a new team member is not thoroughly trained in the platforms used to keep track of a project’s progress, this lack of understanding and engagement with the tool can cause disruptive delays. They may not know when to mark a task as complete or how to provide an update so the project manager can make appropriate adjustments to the timeline and notify all relevant parties. This creates an unnecessary, negative domino effect for the entire team.
• Scheduling – Conflicts in scheduling happen frequently, especially if an organization is working on multiple projects at a time. A successful project manager (PM) takes this into consideration when proposing and implementing a timeline that is manageable for everyone. Issues occur when there is a lack of communication about vacation or time-off requests, demands of other projects and how it impacts specific groups, and no organization when it comes time to sync all the relevant calendars together and pull in the necessary resources, enabling a smooth pipeline of simultaneous assignments.
• Rapid changes – Of course, changes occur all the time during the life cycle of any project. External customers or clients can have unique demands, which potentially stray from standard company procedures. Sometimes, the changes to procedures can come from internal management trying to discover new and improved ways of doing different tasks. The PM, in coordination with the project’s key players and leadership, must be able to have thorough conversations about the changes and discover workarounds that benefit everyone involved. It becomes a struggle for the team when project demands are constantly outside of normal practices. This slows down the workflow, causing a backlog of work until a solution can be found. If this happens across multiple projects at the same time, the team may not be able to produce high-quality results. For this type of barrier to be overcome, the team should collectively be upfront about their capacities and what they’re able to accommodate so that the appropriate decisions can be made.
• No existing practices – There are many occasions when a company is in the process of developing new methods and processes in order to find what works best for their team. Since this often takes time and consistent input from all the relevant parties about what’s working and what isn’t, more robust decision-making can be impacted as it can be a trial-and-error process. Those in managerial positions may have different approaches to problem-solving or the process needs to be tested multiple times before the team finds its rhythm.

• Team skills – One of the biggest roadblocks to effective decision-making in project management can be the resources available, including the team’s skill set. The success of a project depends on the people involved with its completion. The team must be able to rely on each other to do their respective parts, with firm checks and balances in place to guarantee a successful outcome and limit mistakes. Managers should be aware of their direct report’s strengths (and provide training for areas needing improvement), assign them tasks that encourage their growth as employees, and understand how the team as a whole works together in order to ensure effective collaboration. This is a crucial part of the decision-making process: making sure that the right people are in the right seats so the project moves forward successfully. Managers should also be able to identify when it’s time to recruit for positions requiring particular skill sets to address any gaps in the current team structure and provide further support.
• Budget constraints – Budgets act as a guide on how to best move forward and can make it clear what projects take priority and what may be consuming too much time without enough return. It can also determine what resources are currently available and what needs to be allocated to other areas of the company. Put simply, budgets can help give a company direction in what’s possible. In order to make good decisions for the short and long term, the leadership team needs to be clear on where it stands financially to ensure productive operations and continued growth and expansion. Another challenge is creating a realistic budget that takes into account all the individual costs that go into a project. A stricter, smaller budget may impede some teams’ ability to get their work done efficiently if not coordinated strategically.
• Communication – In a survey of 400 companies with 100,00 employees, it was revealed that companies lose an average of $62.4 million dollars per year due to poor communication to and between their employees. Companies with poor communication often host a workplace environment where employees find it difficult to stay focused and feel motivated. As project management largely depends on how well a team communicates with one another to get a project to the finish line and problem-solve along the way, any breakdown in communication between leadership and employees can have disastrous results that extend beyond project management.

While many challenges exist that can heavily impact decision-making in project management, there are ways to help facilitate this process that can set the team up for success.

The Decision-Making Process In Project Management

There are a few steps to consider when approaching decision-making in project management:

1. Identify the purpose of your decision. This is the essential first step in decision-making. You must be able to clearly define the goal behind the decision needing to be made. For example, let’s say we have a PM who is working on putting together a structure for a writing project that will be read aloud on a podcast. Aside from creating a solid timeline of milestones, the PM will need to have a clear goal in mind in order to make effective decisions. The goal in this specific case would be to identify and choose the few individuals to comprise the team, whose expertise will deliver the final product in a faster manner than usual. Since this particular example is considered a high-priority project needing a finer eye, extra care and diligence must be top of mind when making choosing the appropriate team.
2. Have all the information you need directly related to the problem. Before you make a decision, you need to collect all the relevant information, both internally and externally. Let’s take our example of the PM whose team was tasked with writing a project that will be read aloud on a podcast, expanding the company’s visibility. Internally, the PM needs to know the team’s availability to be able to make a decision on a feasible timeline while simultaneously understanding the needs of the external client and their own expectations. This ensures that the team is meeting important milestones.
3. Consider the impact it will have on the rest of the team. When it comes to decision-making, you’ll need to keep in mind the proposed decision will have a ripple effect on the rest of the team. If the decision of a PM causes an imbalance of work – with one person getting more work than another – a new decision should be made in order to rectify the situation. Workplace initiatives often require regular feedback from the individuals on a team so that better, well-thought-out decisions can be made. In our example, the PM will need to review the workload of the team against the needs of the project. If there is considerable conflict in schedules or availability, a team discussion may be needed to identify a solution.
4. Identify different methods as alternatives. Part of a PM’s job is to think about different workflow paths in the event the process doesn’t go as originally planned, or identify if there is a way to work more effectively given the circumstances of the situation. When considering different alternatives, it’s best to keep in mind that whichever secondary options exist still need to be in line with reaching the ultimate goal of the project. If the alternative option can help the team complete the project faster and more efficiently, this would be the time to evaluate all the information available and make a well-rounded decision.
5. Execute your decision. Now that you have all the information you need and have considered the overall impact it will have on the relevant parties, it’s time to execute the decision. The team will carry it out as discussed with relevant check-ins during the process, especially if it is new to the organization. This ensures the workflow process is running smoothly and gives an opportunity to identify, solve, and discuss any issues that arise needing the team’s input.
6. Evaluate continuously. As with any other decisions that impact the team and the work product, evaluation is necessary to help keep processes fresh and effective. You must consider the results of your decisions and whether or not it has met the needs of the project. If not, additional information may be needed in order to make better, more informed decisions when reviewing and improving the processes in the future.

Now that we understand the initial stages of decision-making, let’s talk about the different techniques you can apply in the workplace.

Examples Of Decision-Making In Project Management

Effective decision-making techniques are a healthy combination of intuition, experience, and analysis. Let’s take a look at examples of decision-making in project management.

• Heuristic Technique – This is a method of problem-solving when you want to make quick decisions given a limited time frame, accelerated deadline, or have complex data. This involves relying on past experience, recalling similar situations, intuitive guesswork, trial and error, and mental shortcuts to arrive at a fast solution. This method is intended to be flexible, leaving room for future adjustments. The one downside to this approach is that it can produce errors later in the project’s life cycle. If a particular project is similar in scope and circumstances to a previous assignment, the team can use estimations based on this prior data to make decisions.
• Multi-voting – Multi-voting is a group decision-making technique structured to reduce a large number of action items to a manageable amount based on a team discussion and subsequent vote. The result is a prioritized list that identifies what is most important to the team. Often used during brainstorming sessions, each team member selects from a large number of items what they feel is the most important in the bunch. Depending on the group, this can be done electronically, physically (via a ballot), or through raised hands in a meeting. Each person casts one vote. Then the votes are tallied and the process is repeated until there is a prioritized list of top items. In the case of project management, multi-voting can manifest when the PM works with leadership on an upcoming project. After some discussion about the assignment and the potential issues that may be relevant, the group can then come up with an organized list of the high-priority action items needing to be done.

• Pros/Cons – Quantifying the pros and cons of a decision is one of the most standard approaches. This simple method allows you to think about your decision from all perspectives before confidently making a choice. It’s a quick, easy method to implement that results in objective decisions. This is especially useful when you have doubts about the decision you’re about to make. Whether you decide to do this electronically or on a piece of paper, you can start by writing down your decision at the top. Then, using two columns, write down all the benefits your decision will have on the team. In the other column, you can then jot down your thoughts on any negative outcomes you potentially foresee. An effective way to fully utilize this approach is to get your initial thoughts down as quickly as you can. After you have something on paper, you can then consider the more thoughtful additions to either column. The limitation to this technique is that this is best used when offered up two concrete choices and doesn’t offer much flexibility when you’re faced with multiple issues. Project management often involves various amounts of problem-solving, so if a quick decision needs to be made that has been thoroughly vetted, then evaluating the pros and cons of a decision can prove useful.
• Decision-Tree Analysis – Decision-tree analysis is a visual representation of decisions, potential outcomes, consequences, and possible costs. Using a series of branches and nodes, this support tool can help the project management team identify solutions and evaluate their readiness for implementation. Conversely, branches holding alternative options can be cut entirely from the diagram based on their usefulness to the project. This method is most useful for complex problem-solving, operations, strategies, and cost management. Undeniably, the greatest advantage of the technique is that it is a visual tool, allowing you to see all the possible scenarios in combination with expected outcomes. To use this method in project management, you first need to define the problem in which a decision is needed. Then you can start drawing the decision tree with all the possible solutions and consequences. Anything relevant to the outcome goes into the tree. This includes the monetary value and potential payoffs.

• SWOT analysis – SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It can reveal areas that need improvement and what is likely to succeed. In project management, Strengths will be your internal factors such as the resources you have available like software, the expertise of the team members, customer relationship, etc. Weaknesses, on the other hand, are the factors that hinder the project’s completion such as budget constraints, an inexperienced team, or lack of transparency into established processes. Opportunities are the external factors that support the project such as another task finishing early, freeing up more resources for the team. Threats are what can impair the success of the project. When you understand how all these components work together, it’s easier to come up with a strategic decision so you can take appropriate action.

A lack of resources in project management doesn’t need to spell disaster. In fact, a key part of a project manager’s role is finding a way to make things work without exceeding the budget with the resources they have available. Resources can be anything from material to equipment to staff power.

Good project managers will be able to navigate through their projects and supply their deliverables on time. They will know how to make the most out of the resources available and get more out of their staff. In this article, we’ll be looking at how to deal with a lack of resources and some tricks for meeting deadlines.

There are many reasons that could cause resources to be stretched and it’s the job of the project manager and their team to figure out the next move. Let’s take a look at some of the most common causes for a lack of resources at work.

What Causes A Lack of Resources In Project Management?

If only everything could operate as planned all the time, we’d never have any issues. Unfortunately, that is not the reality that project managers will face. Problems will rear their ugly face as often as they can if you’re not prepared.

The saying “everything that can go wrong will go wrong” is never more true than when you undertake a new project. Lack of resources can sometimes be identified early enough to prevent. However, there will be unexpected events that can derail a project’s progress.

Some of the issues that project managers can expect at work include:

Higher Priorities

Businesses often have more than one project running at any given time. On occasion, there may be a call to redeploy your resources to another project that needs them more. These decisions can be made by executives and are entirely out of your hands.

When this happens, the project manager will need to assist the company by relinquishing some of its resources to the other project. It could be moving materials, equipment, or staff which can lead to delays in the project.

Staff Absence

Team members may have to take unexpected time off such as sickness or personal days. Vacation days on the other hand can be planned ahead of time and shouldn’t affect the overall progress too much. However, when a staff member falls ill or suffers a bereavement they may need to take an undisclosed amount of time off.

The problem can accelerate when multiple team members need to take sick days at the same time. To combat this you may need to hire temporary workers or redistribute staff to make up the workload.

Broken Equipment

When equipment breaks it can be a major setback for any project no matter the size. For example, if your intranet system breaks and no one can access shared files, a project could be forced to stand still. Some issues are temporary and can be resolved quickly whereas others can be ongoing with a costly fix.

If you’re using expensive equipment that requires a significant portion of the budget and it breaks, the project is in serious jeopardy. An engineer will need to be deployed to fix the issue which is an added expense not budgeted. This stretches the time and cost of the project.

Supply Issues

Not all issues will stem from in-house. Supply issues can catch you off guard and there’s not a lot you can do if the other companies in the supply chain aren’t delivering. These issues can stem from a lack of materials at the warehouse, or not enough drivers to deliver the goods.

Despite exchanging contracts and agreeing on a delivery date, things get missed. If the delivery is crucial to project progression it can hold things up. Your team members will have to sit twiddling their thumbs until the goods arrive. As a project manager, you can jump on the phone and try to speed the delivery up but sometimes it’s completely out of your hands.

Poor Planning

Sometimes it just boils down to poor planning during the early stages of the project. Blaming the issues on poor planning should not be the last resort. The sooner the issue is identified the quicker problems can be rectified.

This is why a project needs to be properly planned ahead of time with all the relevant documents. A baseline budget is a great document to help anticipate and plan for a lack of resources in project management.

Plan the project thoroughly in the early phases and use these plans to compare actual progress with projected progress. That way projects can be kept on the right track as best as possible.

Technology Issues

In many ways, technology has increased productivity across all industries. However, it presents its own challenges that can hold up project development. One such problem is where people aren’t familiar with the technology you want to use and how large the learning curve is for it.

If you’re working with outdated technology such as desktop hardware, your productivity can be affected as things take longer to respond. This eats into the time your team has available to use on actual work.

Software that is no longer supported by the developer can hinder development. If the budget doesn’t allow for new software, staff will have to make do but their progress may be slowed down.

How To Prevent a Lack of Resources At Work

Prevention is the best course of action to deal with a lack of resources. If you can spot potential issues early enough, you can work on a plan to ensure the worst doesn’t come to pass. Of course, it’s not always going to be possible but preventing a lack of resources in project management is a big part of the job.

The easiest way to do this is by developing a method of monitoring the resources as the project is underway. At the start of the project, you should compile documents on resource allocation, budget limitations, and the project schedules. It may be worth splitting the project into phases which can be easier to monitor and control the risks.

Here are some things you should consider doing at the start of the project:

• Understand the deliverables
• Set a deadline
• Define the scope of the project
• Identify any project lags
• Estimating activity levels
• Forecast and estimations based on prior projects
• Develop a baseline budget
• Create a RAID log (risks, actions, issues, decisions)
• Project communication plan
• Use project management software

The more prepared you are at the start of a project the smoother the development will be. When compiling the necessary documents in the early stages you’ll be able to identify potential issues and plan accordingly. Preventing a resource shortage should be a top priority throughout the life cycle of a project and the best way to do that is through monitoring and control.

Using a good project management tool such as Teamly can make all the difference for your projects. We’ve designed it to be the only tool you’ll need for all your project management requirements. It allows you to connect your entire team remotely which gives you more flexibility to finish projects faster than your competition.

By having all your information in one place, you’ll be able to monitor project progression with ease. If there is an opportunity to spot a lack of resources early, software like this can give you a nice head start.

How To Plan Your Resources Efficiently

During the early phases of a project, you can put together a resource plan which documents what’s available to you and how to split it up during the project. This is a document that should be as thorough as possible when you create it. Include details of staffing, materials, equipment, and anything else you deem necessary.

Work out exactly what resources you need to complete the project on time and on budget. You can use previous projects as a benchmark when deciding on what’s needed for the new one. At this point, you’ll be able to anticipate if the budget and resources available are adequate.

Next, you’ll need to understand when each resource will be needed during each phase of the project. You may not need every staff member working on the project at the beginning but as production ramps up, you’ll need to bring more people in. If you can plan this ahead of time, you’ll know the impact the resources will have on project development.

If you’re dealing with limited resources you should figure out how often you’ll need to use them. Break down usage according to days, weeks, and months. If certain things are only needed for a single day in the project, you’ll know the best time to deploy them to keep costs down.

A good project manager will be able to identify what resources can be stretched to fulfill more requirements. Look at the unmoveable aspects of the project such as deadline and budget and work on getting the most out of every resource you have.

What to Do When You Notice A Lack of Resources?

When you first realize that the resources available are dwindling you need to figure out why before anything else. The reason could be obvious such as staff sickness and the fix is obvious as well, such as adding another member to the team temporarily. Other issues may take longer to identify but it’s an important first step to know what to do next.

Small problems that require an easy fix can be remedied by looking at the task list and rearranging priorities if there is any wiggle room. If it’s a major problem then you need to understand what the impact is going to be on the project, including time and cost considerations.

Once you have a clear understanding of the impact, note down if this will affect the scope or quality of the project. Now you’ll need to devise a plan to work around the issues and speak with the other stakeholders in the project. You may be tempted to try and fix the problem alone but involving more people can help address the issues better.

The other stakeholders in the project could include the product owner, executives, the client, and key members of the team. Put your heads together to devise a plan to address the lack of resources at work and how to move forward on time and on budget.

It’s at this point a request can be put into the control board to allocate more resources, whether additional staff or a budget increase. Ultimately, it will be their decision so including them in the discussion at this stage is vital. Avoid putting off the discussion if it becomes apparent more resources are required.

Once the plan is made, you’ll then need to implement and oversee the decisions. Keep a close eye on resource allocation to ensure the new agreements are sufficient to see the project through to completion.

Use the Experience to Plan More Effectively in the Future

Although a lack of resources can be stressful for project managers it can be a great way to learn and level up your abilities. Think about how the lack of resources impacted the project. Did you have to go over budget or ask for a deadline extension?

There will be clear lessons to learn when this happens and you should be open to them. Sit down with the stakeholders at the end of the project to discuss any inefficiencies and what led to the lack of resources at work in the first place.

Take on board any criticism or advice people have and grow from the opportunity. Unfortunately, the possibility of poor resource allocation is a common issue for project managers.

Think about what caused the issues and if there was a chance to spot things earlier. People can learn a lot from adversity and dealing with a lack of resources provides a great opportunity for growth.