6.3.

2 Project management pitfalls

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 The project environment offers numerous opportunities for project
managers and team members to get into trouble.
 Common types of management pitfalls are:
 Lack of self-control (knowing oneself)
 Activity traps
 Managing versus doing
 People versus task skills
 Ineffective communications
 Time management
 Management bottlenecks

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 Knowing oneself, especially one’s capabilities,
strengths, and weaknesses, is the first
step toward successful project management.
 Too often, managers will assume that they are
jacks-of-all-trades, will “bite off more than they
can chew,”

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 Activity traps: result when the means become the end, rather
than the means to achieve the end.
 The most common activity traps are team meetings,
customer–technical interchange meetings, and the
development of special schedules and charts that cannot be
used for customer reporting but are used to inform upper-
level management of project status.
 Sign-off documents: are another activity trap and managers
must evaluate whether all this paperwork is worth the effort .

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 Managing versus Doing:
 poor leadership- the inability to obtain a balance
between management functions and technical
functions. This can easily develop into an activity
trap where the individual becomes a doer rather
than a manager.
 Unfortunately, there often exists a very fine line
between managing and doing.

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 As an example,
 consider a project manager who was asked
by one of his technical people to make a
telephone call to assist him in solving a
problem.
 Simply making the phone call is doing work
that should be done by the project team
members or even the functional manager.
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 There are several other cases where one must
become a doer in order to be an effective manager
and command the loyalty and respect of
subordinates.
 Assume a special situation where you must
schedule subordinates to work overtime on
holidays or weekends.

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 utilize either people skills or task skills.
 Another major pitfall is the decision to utilize either
people skills or task skills.
 Is it better to utilize subordinates with whom you can
obtain a good working relationship or to employ highly
skilled people simply to get the job done?
 Obviously, the project manager would like nothing better
than to have the best of both worlds, but this is not always
possible.

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 Time management:
 It is often said that a good project manager must be willing
to work sixty to eighty hours a week to get the job done. The
major reason, however, is the result of ineffective time
management.

 Prime examples : might include the continuous flow of

paperwork, unnecessary meetings, unnecessary phone
calls, and acting as a tour guide for visitors
.
 To be effective, the project manager must establish time
management rules and then ask himself four questions:
● What am I doing that I don’t have to be doing at all?
● What am I doing that can be done better by someone
else?
● What am I doing that could be done sufficiently well by
someone else?
● Am I establishing the right priorities for my activities?

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 Rules for time management
● Conduct a time analysis (time log)
● Plan solid blocks for important things
● Classify your activities
● Establish priorities
● Establish opportunity cost on activities
● Train your system (boss, subordinate, peers)
● Practice delegation
● Practice calculated neglect
● Practice management by exception
● Focus on opportunities—not on problem

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