The 10 Most Common Project Management Mistakes

A new report from the IT management consulting firm Forrester Research identifies the 10 most common mistakes in project development and how to avoid them. Forrester researchers point out that many of the mistakes are well known. Nevertheless, project developers keep making them, so it is always helpful to review them, Forrester advises.

The top 10 are:

1. Never committing to project success. When a project threatens a business unit, it has a low chance of succeeding. Users in a unit undergoing technological change are not helpful in identifying requirements and are vague about their work. Developers need to work extra hard in showing why the project is useful.

2. Freezing the schedule and budget before the project is understood. Executives tend to hold project developers to the initial, yet sketchy, budget and schedule timelines. Because developers don't understand much about the project at the beginning of the cycle, estimates are no more than guesses. Some developers fund a team to investigate the project's details to create a more informed budget and schedule.

3. Overscoping the solution. Forrester calls this using "a chainsaw to open an envelope." Sometimes a simple tweak or fix -- not a new system -- to an existing application is all that is needed to satisfy a requirement.

4. Circumventing the application development organization. Sometimes a business unit or agency office will hire a contractor to develop an application without informing the central IT office. Integration with the organization's systems can prove troublesome. The application development team must educate the organization's units that it should be informed to avoid technical problems.

5. Underestimating the complexity of the problem. Business users fail to provide the necessary detail for requirements so that the application development office can judge how complex the functionality of the system must be. To avoid this problem, the Program Management Office must deliver applications in stages to receive feedback on whether the system is meeting requirements. That way adjustments can be made earlier in the process, saving money and time.

6. Being stingy with subject-matter experts. When the line of business does not provide enough subject-matter experts -- those who intimately know the business and what a system needs to serve the business requirements -- projects go off track. Without a subject matter expert, application developers will tend to make their own decisions as to what needs to be done to keep the project on schedule. To make it work, a subject matter expert or experts must be freed up from their daily jobs to devote a large part of their day to the project.

7. Choosing the wrong project leadership. Mistakes include identifying two project heads without stating who has authority, and, two, creating a working committee that is too large. A project leadership team with 20 participants is "inertial," Forrester reported. "An informed few can proxy for the many, and only one of the few should clearly have final decision-making power," Forrester reports.

8. Distrusting the managers to whom tasks have been delegated. Another way to put it: avoid micromanaging. Do not use steering committees to delve into technical details, for example. That only alienates managers and takes valuable time away from making decisions that are needed to advance the project, Forrester concludes.

9. Jumping into the “D” of “R&D” without enough “R.” Schedule pressures, and an enthusiastic technical staff, tend to take away time for properly scoping out a project and learning exactly what is being asked. Build in investigative time into schedules, Forrester advises.

10. Suppressing bad news. Some organizational cultures view problems as embarrassing. That means the staff is reluctant to point out problems, even it means bigger problems will occur later in the project cycle. Discuss problems as they occur, Forrester recommends.