According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 60% of failed projects are due to internal problems.

Do you remember the cartoon “Paws, Wings, Tail”, where the Eagle tried to teach the Ostrich to fly and said: “It is better to lose a day, then to fly in 5 minutes”? So it is in the project: it is better to take enough time for planning, so as to avoid heroic struggle with difficulties later.

Even careful preparation does not guarantee that you will avoid problems and implement a perfect project. There are always external factors that neither the project manager nor the team can influence, and risks that appear despite all attempts to minimize them. But if you correctly passed the planning stage, you will foresee and prevent many problems. Or at least you will be ready for them and move to “Plan B” with a cool head.

MISTAKE 1. There are no clear goals and criteria for project success

As Seneca said: “When a ship does not know to which port it is heading, no wind will be fair.” If we do not understand the goal of the project and do not know what result to consider its achievement, then we solve many tasks without getting close to the goal.

At the beginning of the journey, make sure that the customer and the team equally understand the goal, that everyone understands how to evaluate the implemented project. Clearly formulate the success criteria. They are unique for each project, and are determined by the customer.

I once consulted for an organization that had a project with a tight deadline. It had already been going on for six months, and the only criterion for success was launching on time. When we wrote down all the criteria, it turned out that some of the works were simply forgotten. I had to revise and finalize the whole plan.

MISTAKE 2. Poor communication in the project

Good communication is when the right person receives the right information at the right time and in the right way.

If communication is not established, mutual complaints arise. The project manager is waiting for the results of the two-week-old negotiations from the manager, and the customer meanwhile does not make changes to the project, because they simply did not reach him.

To All newsletters are inefficient — over time, they stop being read. Therefore, at the planning stage, work out communications with project stakeholders. So all participants will clearly understand what the right information, the right time and the right person are.

ERROR 3. The internal processes of the project are not built

When the processes are built, the team follows role instructions and procedures. Perfect picture. Only it does not occur as often as one would like.

To achieve coherence, define the key rules of work in the project:

how communication is organized, what to do if a problem arises or a risk is triggered, how to work with changes Agree on these rules within the team at the kick-off meeting. Then all participants will feel more confident, because when the process is clear, tasks are solved more easily and quickly. This is how our brain is structured: it needs a plan of action so as not to panic and fuss. The simpler and clearer the rules and processes, the more successful the project.

MISTAKE 4. Reactive behavior of the project manager

If the manager acts “reactively” — reacts only to a problem or conflict, then the risk of project failure is very high.

The manager’s behavior should be proactive. It is necessary to look at the project as a system and constantly analyze:

how efficiently everything works, whether goals are achieved, how productive the team is, what risks may arise and how to minimize them. A good manager calculates several steps ahead and does everything so that the risk does not occur, the problem does not arise, and the conflict is resolved before it appears. This requires experience and commitment. Without proactivity, the project manager is more of a coordinator who gathers statistics and escalates issues.

MISTAKE 5. Poor stakeholder management

Stakeholders are everyone who affects the project and who is affected by the project: customer, sponsor, team, users, managers, etc. There may be several of them, or there may be several dozen: on one project, we identified 52 interested parties. Identify them at the planning stage.

Define expectations, discuss what you will implement exactly, and what you will implement only under favorable conditions.

MISTAKE 6. Insufficient motivation of project participants

This happens only in one case: if the manager did not clarify the interests of the team members at the beginning of the project.

Motivation happens “from” and “to” – a kind of parallel to the method of the whip and the gingerbread: for someone, material reward is important, for someone praise, and someone should be warned about the consequences for not fulfilling their duties. Everyone has their own motivational triggers.

ERROR 7. Ignoring assumptions and limitations

Restrictions, for example, the launch of another product at the customer or legal restrictions, are determined at the start of the project. They affect implementation — if you don’t take them into account, sooner or later they will “catch up” with you. This can be painful for both the team and the company.

Assumptions are our assumptions about how the project environment will behave. Agree on these points with the customer and build a project plan based on them, otherwise all the risks will fall on you.

For example, the manager suggested, which will coordinate the design of the application in two iterations, but did not coordinate it with the customer. Amendments were made for several months, while the customer simply “clarified his task”. The result is overspending of the budget, busy resources that cannot be transferred to another project, a shift in terms and an unsatisfied customer.

Planning is not only making a project plan, but also developing a communications plan, a risk management plan, a stakeholder management plan, etc. If for some reason you decide to skip one of the planning components, it will definitely come up in the next stages.

Little time? Can’t you? And so everything will work out? “Remember: it’s better to lose a day, then fly in 5 minutes.”