For the young, brash and confident business owner, new projects seem like new adventures. For the seasoned business owner, they are a tough necessity. They are needed to grow, add value, improve and evolve the intelligence of the company and sometimes just stay above the waterline. Both aspects are true, new projects are an amazing experience.

The challenges posed to you will show you what you’re really made of, what you’re capable of and what you’re not ready for yet. Anyone from any background can be a business owner, but in reality the project management role is not for everyone. Learning new platforms, software, processes and people management skills is all part and parcel of leading a team in this venture. For the inexperienced, they must actively avoid stepping in deadly pitfalls. These major areas of concern can destroy a project from the inside out, can sap your funds dry and leave your employees disgruntled. It’s in your best interest to research these particular areas of concern, grasp an understanding of them and prepare to avoid them before you even set out on your new project.

Don’t Think with Your Heart

The world of business has had a standard practice for almost three decades now. Created in the UK government in the late 90s, the PRINCE2 system has become the generic project management standard. The principles of this system reign true even in modern business. The crucial incentive is to think with your head and not with your heart. Your passion for an idea must not outweigh the realistic possibility of bringing it to life. The first step is to seriously calculate the end benefits in accordance with the overall cost. If the cost of a project is more than the benefits, you won’t get a return on investment (ROI).

With a Prince2 Certification you’ll be in better shape to understand the vital principles of the best project management framework there is today. You’ll learn everything you need to plan, start, manage and bring a project to a successful close. The foundation course is used to introduce you to this system, which will last for 3 days.

Crossing the Paths

When you first set out on your new project, you’ll realize just how complicated things can get. A million different ideas are thrown at you by management employees, you have your own ideas and you also want to hear worker’s ideas too. To keep things from getting hectic, you’ll try to be extremely organized. This leads to teams often being kept apart so you can deal with them one-on-one. When you do this, you are slowing dismantling a bridge which is crucial for cross-team collaboration. Teams from different backgrounds and skills, should be working together for certain things. Both large and small teams should speak with each other regularly or at intervals when stages of the project are being set or nearing completion.

If your design team is locked in a bunker, they won’t adapt to or meet the demands of your research and development department. What if your R&D team has seen a flaw in their research? They will need to quickly change the fundamentals of a product design, which means the design team will have to be informed as soon as possible to stop working and change direction. This can only occur when both departments and project teams are collaborating with each other. Cross-over teams are also needed to have a mixture of talents and skills. Thus, you should also look to form a mish-mash of employees that bring something unique to the table. Both of these concepts avoid the pitfall of errors in the foundation of a project.

The Ever-Changing Realm

The same mountain stands in front of every project leader when they first turn over a new page. It’s the constantly changing scope of the project. Wishful thinking is putting it politely, if you believe that your project will run smoothly just as you planned. In a quickly-changing environment, you need to utilize ‘agile management’ techniques. As you progress further into the timeline, you will need to reassess your budget. Perhaps the cost of a material has gone up in the markets, fossil fuels used to run vehicles and machines is definitely changing every day. You should also be prepared for losing or adding team members to a project. Manpower must be kept at an optimal standing. Have you thought of your relation to these staples of agile management planning?

• Existing infrastructure – Can you build your products on existing software or machinery? This will be determined by the capabilities needed to make a product or service. Can you integrate new systems into current ones? Can your developers and skilled workers meet your demands and create the product or service in question, or will you need to supply them with new tools?
• Timeline readiness – For seasoned project leaders, they will know that along their set timeline they will need to make a pitstop. Here they can check to see their budget balance, what has cost more than expected and how much have they saved. They’ll comprehend the progress or lack there of that they have made. Timelines can be predictable if all goes well, so you should be ready to replenish your budget, manpower, equipment, contacts and more when you arrive at checkpoints.
• Decreasing manpower – A project that rapidly expands out of your hands, can be tamed again by increasing manpower. A client increasing their order, or signing an agreement with a new larger client will make demand skyrocket. To supplement these changes, you should be ready to hire new permanent or temporary employees. The same goes for if you lose employees as this can slow down a project and overload the remaining numbers.

These three giant pitfalls are to be avoided at all costs. Think carefully about the benefits of your project. The end result must be one that is easily recognizable as being worth it. Be adaptable and agile in your management style, be ready to increase manpower as and when required.