Great Team but Poor Project Management? You Could Be Crippling Your Business’s Success
Finding top talent can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But once you find the skilled, knowledgeable, and hardworking employees you need, your business is on the path to success. Right?
If your employees can’t effectively communicate or manage their time when working on projects, your business could be in trouble.
So, do you think you have assembled the greatest team in the world? Make sure your staff’s talent translates to business success by prioritizing project management and collaboration.
Wondering what makes project management work? It’s ProofHub, the one place for all your projects and teams. Sign up now!
A little bit about project management
Project management is the process of effectively carrying a project from start to finish.
The five stages of project management include planning, initiating, executing, monitoring, and closing.
Although an individual worker might be excellent at managing a project, a team may not be. And if a team can’t work together on a project, the project can quickly fall apart.
What’s the big deal about good project management, anyway?
Only 58% of businesses recognize the true value of project management. Do you?
Without successful project management, your employees could end up overshooting your business’s budget, missing deadlines, wasting time, and duplicating content.
What’s worse is that a project could get so off the rails that you might never even be able to bring it to fruition. Think about the wasted time and money!
The bottom line is that poor project management could decrease your small business revenue, drive up your expenses, shrink your ROI (return on investment), and hurt your company’s reputation.
The key to effectively managing small business projects
According to a Gallup survey, only 2.5% of companies are 100% successful in completing projects. So, what does great project management take?
Effective project management depends on:
- Time tracking
- Task delegation
- Collaboration
- Knowledge sharing
- Budgeting
If your team can’t do the above when managing projects, you’re setting yourself up for a disorganized mess.
Now you know why project management matters. Further, you know what it takes to make for a successful project management process.
Now, how do you get it?
1. Use project management tools in your business
Before starting a project, you need to have the proper tools in place at your business.
Project management tools are an absolute must for effective communication, status updates, collaboration, and project tracking.
The types of project management tools vary. Some tools might be specific or project management, like software, while others are general tools you can use in project management, like a chat software.
Here are a few options you can use to streamline project management in your small business:
- Project management software, like ProofHub
- Spreadsheets
- Calendars
- Collaboration software (e.g., Slack)
You might even decide to create your own project management tools, like we did at Patriot. In the workplace, we use our own project tracker system that lets us bundle and assign projects, track them, provide status updates, and more.
Do some research to find a project management system that works for you.
2. Identify the 5 Ws of the project before getting started
Once you have the right tools in place, it’s time to provide details about the project. To get started, identify the “5 Ws.”
For those of you unfamiliar with the 5 Ws, they are:
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- When?
- Why?
When it comes to a project, put these old-school questions into action. Identify:
- Who will be part of the project? Which employees will participate?
- What will these employees be doing? What is each employee’s responsibility?
- Where will the project take place? Is it online or in print? Is it inside or outside of the office?
- When will the project start and end? When are the tentative deadlines for each part of the project?
- Why is this project taking place? Why will it be good for the overall mission and vision of your business?
Asking yourself the 5 Ws will help you narrow down the scope of your project, delegate responsibilities, and set expectations.
3. Be realistic when setting budgets and deadlines
One Harvard Business Review study found that, when it comes to IT projects, the average budget overrun is 27%. IT or not, project budget overruns are a problem in many businesses.
Another problem organizations face is missing project deadlines. According to one survey, only 37% of respondents said they always or mostly meet deadlines.
One reason for missed budget constraints and deadlines (in addition to poor project planning) could be unrealistic expectations.
To combat this, make sure you are realistic when setting budgets and deadlines. Although wishful thinking is good, you need to come up with a reasonable timeframe and estimate by breaking down the stages of the project.
Set a budget and deadline for each step within the budget. From there, you can add up everything to come up with your overall budget and deadline. Consider giving yourself some wiggle room for incidentals.
4. Create an accessible knowledge base for your team
When your team works on a project together, they must communicate. And, they may need to access resources, such as project, how-to, or schedule information.
Create a knowledge base filled with resources your team can access for each project. Be sure to include:
- Directions
- Who’s doing what
- Status updates
- The project schedule
To make the transfer of information easier, use knowledge base software that are accessible to everyone in your team (e.g., shared spreadsheets).
5. Develop a culture that values project management
Does your work culture value project management? Or, is project management something that gets put on the backburner?
Only 25% of surveyed project management directors said that creating a culture that values project management was a low or somewhat low priority. That means that 75% of PMO directors prioritize creating a culture of project management.
To develop a culture that values project management, you need to encourage teamwork, strong communication, and the use of project management tools.
Get everyone on the same page by creating a project management guide and hosting meetings where you talk about ways to improve projects. During the hiring process, ask candidates questions relating to project management.
6. Make sure everyone is willing to adapt
Effective project management requires a lot of planning. You and your team must plan out who is doing what, by when, and how. Without specific planning, there are no project guidelines.
But if your project management plan is too inflexible, it could implode.
Rushing to finish a project to meet a deadline or skimping on the budget can lead to an unsuccessful project.
Chances are, things will come up that can impact the direction the project is going in. Make sure that everyone on your team is willing to adapt throughout the project.
7. Never stop learning what works and what doesn’t
Your project management process isn’t going to be perfect right off the bat. Aside from beginner’s luck, nothing ever is immediately successful.
The important thing to remember is that you need to constantly assess project results and make changes to your process.
Collaboration isn’t the best way to work, It’s the only way to work. Collaborate better with ProofHub. Get started today!
Pick apart what works and doesn’t work in your system. Change up the project management tools you use if you find they’re lacking. Be firm about your expectations to your workers if they aren’t sharing knowledge.
Don’t stop assessing your results when you come close to hitting your budget or deadlines. Continue adapting your project management system even after you find a near-perfect process.
About the author: Rachel Blakely-Gray is a content writer at Patriot Software, LLC. Patriot Software offers online accounting software and payroll software for small business owners and accountants. At Patriot, Rachel enjoys providing actionable, growth-oriented conten
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