Project management is a necessary field in almost every company. No organization truly prospers without proper project planning and execution. Even though this task might seem easy, project management is tough and takes a lot of patience and dedication.
Did you know that nearly 12% of the total resources are often wasted due to bad project management? You need to make sure that your project utilizes resources and money in the best way possible. Here are some planning errors that cost you money.
1. The scope of the project is not clear
An unclear project scope is very chaotic in the long run. Not only does it waste manpower, but it also throws money down the drain. In addition, if your goal is not defined right from the start, you and your teammates become distracted and tend to focus on unimportant things.
Therefore, the scope of the project must be specific and crystal-clear. Furthermore, any good project needs careful planning with all the factors in mind. These factors include required resources, approximate time for completion, etc.
2. Doing everything yourself
Even if you are the project leader or manager, it is important to assign specific tasks to people. If you try to do everything yourself, there are high chances of messing up the work. Furthermore, this only has you redo the project and waste money.
Instead, you need to listen to the suggestions offered by other members of your team. Understand their inputs and let them do the work. Of course, this does not mean you won’t do anything. The point is to not turn a deaf ear to others’ suggestions and keep all the limelight for yourself.
3. Using the wrong tools
In today’s era of smartphones and AI gadgets, it is important to use the right software to manage your projects. However, if you use slow or unresponsive software, it does more harm than good. This is where runn.io comes in handy.
This is a resource planning and forecasting software equipped amazing features like timesheets, capacity management, reporting, and API integrations. For example, you sync all your data quickly in one single software and share it with other members of the team.
This not only enables everyone to communicate clearly, but it also saves a lot of money.
4. Everyone is overly optimistic
It’s good to be optimistic, but it is not great to be overly optimistic. You and your teammates need to be practical and realize that not all work gives you good results. Therefore, take a breather and reassure yourself that it is okay to redo a job.
If everyone on the team is always overly optimistic, they do not see the practical aspects of the job and waste more money on the wrong things. Tight scheduling often overlooks the workload, which gets financially troubling. So, ask your teammates to be positive but practical too.
5. You communicate improperly
One of the most important tasks of a good project planning leader is to communicate effectively. Unless you clearly communicate to everyone what to do, everyone’s work ends up overlapping.
In these cases, you find team members who spent too much money doing the same job twice while another very important job has yet to be done by anyone at all.
Therefore, hold weekly or monthly meetings and discuss the progress being made. All forms of communication must be very clear and documented.
6. Using the wrong team
While the right team does wonders for a project, the wrong team is equally harmful. Just because you hired some individuals to work under you doesn’t mean everyone is qualified for the job.
Moreover, using the wrong members discredits your profile as a leader and causes you to spend unnecessary amounts of money.
So always make sure you hire everyone according to their capabilities and knowledge. Then, if necessary, search for people outside the company.
Over to you…
These are six common mistakes that most project leaders are guilty of. They cost the company a lot — both financially and physically. If you wish to avoid them and ensure success for your team, start building foolproof strategies today.
