5 BIGGEST CHALLENGES AS A PROJECT MANAGER

1. Dispelling PM myths about Project Manager’s and project management in general

It’s the myth that Project Manager’s are just paper pushers. They’re just working on admin, administrative stuff, that they’re bullies. They’re the ones who are always on my back about things and they get in the way. They give me too much extra stuff to do. They just add extra work to the project. Those are myths that I think Project Manager’s spend a lot of time working on trying to dispel. Just to get the credibility back into their role and to the field of Project Management.

2. You have to re craft and reorganize

There’s so much going on now whether it’s your industry, whether it’s technology, but it’s keeping up, not only on that, but also the changes that are occurring constantly on the project. So, hang on, change is coming, because what happens is that changes the priorities and when priorities change you lose your resources, you lose your budget, and things constantly change. 

3. Staying relevant. So, having the time to develop yourself

To learn what are the trends going on in my industry. What’s the technology that people are using? Now organizations are incorporating using mobile phones, social media, and new tools. Also, policies. What kind of policies are infecting the environment, our industry? Whether it’s telecommunications, technology, real estate, all types of industries. What methods? There are all kinds of methods now and knowing which method is appropriate for you type of project.

4. Losing resources

So, as things change and they’re higher priority projects, invariably you lose your people or your budget. You know, the critical resource, the super star on your project, that you fear, “Oh my god if I lose that person, I’m dead in the water”. Well typically, we do, and then the budget, so budget gets reallocated to other projects. So therefore, you have to go back re prioritize your work. Change it, and that’s constantly happening.

Then the other one is standing firm. There’s actually a song that says “Know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em”. I think it’s harder to actually stand and hold ‘em. Meaning, step up or go to bat for things in your group, whether it’s resources, trying to fight for or stand for the people so that you don’t lose them. Go to your organization and let them know why it’s important that you keep that resource. Or time, you may have to go back to your stake holders and position and stand firm that you need more time, things have changed, actually go to your change control board. Then process changes. So, there may need to be some process changes in your organization where you have to change things in order to be more efficient.

5. Politics, dealing with the gremlin of politics in your organization

So, it’s harder to stand firm. I think if a Project manager can overcome some of these challenges then they can begin arming themselves to handle the other challenges, like the risk, the change, the managing risk holders expectations, and all those things that the other research reports back.