Streamline project delivery making it faster and more profitable – this is the vision that drives businesses. From maintaining a state-of-the-art-infrastructure and acquiring clients to hiring and retaining the best talents and procuring the best IT project management tools – everything is done in pursuance with this objective.
Although, this is what every entrepreneur wants, only a few achieve it. Discover IT project management pitfalls that sink project delivery – causing not a just monetary loss but also beyond. It may blemish the reputation of the firm in the market, which is hard to repair.
Lack of desired project management skills
As an IT company, you might have different projects to undertake. Some might be on iOS, Artificial Intelligence, SAP, machine learning, and robotics. Hence, you need to hire the right project manager for on-time delivery of the projects with quality.
In most cases, IT consulting companies hire people with a limited amount of experience in these verticals. Fewer years of experience in these verticals mean that the remuneration can be negotiated. But, in doing so, you are ignoring the larger picture.
Solution: It is better to invest in people who can deliver. Pay a little more and make the project stay than pay less and increase project costs. Remember, clients are the breath of the business, and you cannot inhale stale air.
Hiring an authoritative project manager
It is not always the lack of skills that cost you projects, but also attitude and ego. If your IT project manager is high on ego and attitude, you are staring at disaster.
Solution: At the time of hiring the project manager, interview the candidate by giving him or her simulated situations, based on the skills of the subordinates and their suggestions. Ask the candidate to charter a way out, keeping the ideas of the subordinates in mind.
You must check the applicant’s attitude, the respect that is paid to the suggestions of the subordinates and the solution achieved. It will help you identify the right person. If you don’t have a dedicated HR team to spot talent, leave it to the right IT staffing company to find you, good people.
Not understanding the objectives
To establish your company as a brand, you have to stand for goodwill and reputation. In most cases, companies are always looking forward to only the revenues. On the contrary, the fact is that revenue is a by-product.
Solution: At the time of hiring the project manager, you must make him/her understand the goals and objectives of the organization. If you have committed a deadline to the client and assured quality-checked deliverables, the project manager should understand that and work towards achieving it. Failing to comply will cost you clients and projects. Keep a good focus on that and take the call accordingly.
Missing on the right project management tools
There are many project management tools in the market. If you are a beginner, selecting tools that will help you manage your projects with diligence is a daunting challenge.
Solution: Go for project management tools and CRM applications that provide you a 360-degree overview of the workflow of product design, development, and quality compliance. With the availability of cloud-based tools, you don’t need to invest a fortune. Their pay-as-you-go subscription model and device-independence are a great boon.
Not prioritizing projects and/or tasks
Working without prioritizing projects delays delivery and brews client dissatisfaction. In the course of product development, you are likely to encounter new requirements at times when your team is up to its neck in the defined or routine tasks. Besides, the internal quality compliance people are likely to come up with a list of new bugs that need fixing and suggestions to augment the user experience.
Solution: Emphasizing on collaboration and effective communication Agile software development methodology provides an effective remedy to it. Let your in-house or remote team members from design and development to quality assurance and, not to forget, the client stay in sync with the work-flow. Schedules and priorities have to be defined well in advance before your team catches up with the daily tasks. This will help you too, successfully and without defying the TTM (time-to-market), deliver the product to your client.
The emerging situations pose new challenges to the software developers as the demands have to be met successfully and without defying the TTM (time-to-market).