When planning a large project, your project management leadership skills will be invaluable for ensuring the entire process succeeds. However, any project manager understands that things can go wrong no matter how well you plan. Expectations or visions may not align. You may misjudge certain skills and strengths, meaning some of your team is wasted in other areas.
While these issues can be easy to fix for smaller projects, long-term projects bring other problems. Considering the scope of these projects and the client’s expectations, you need to guarantee you can manage a large project successfully. No matter how experienced you think you are, consider these points to boost your confidence and reap the rewards.
Risks Of Poor Project Management
Delays
Project delays are never ideal, so failing to manage your large project could cause severe issues immediately. If you cannot stay on top of everything or communicate efficiently, there is a bigger chance something will go wrong. In many cases, other departments cannot complete their work until the previous step is signed off. The longer the project takes, the more issues will arise and eventually snowball into something that could become unmanageable even for more experienced project managers.
Over Budget
Similarly, longer projects need to be more careful with the budget. Compare this to small projects you can complete in a few weeks or even a month where you don’t need to use or consume all the resources available. Many budgets plan for potential issues, and the budget will be allocated accordingly, but this does not mean you can be too casual with the funding. Exceeding your budget could damage the company’s finances and impact how much money will be available for the next project.
Client Issues
You always expect various problems you could encounter with the client while working through the project. Most of the time, you can solve these easily, as it is often a minor communication or clarity issue. However, poor project management can exacerbate these problems and even sour the client on you and your company. This problem is especially true if the client has high expectations and pays a lot for a successful project. Continuous problems could result in the client refusing to pay full price or losing them altogether.
Lack Of Motivation
Poor project management does not just affect your bottom line and client relationships. It can also harm your employees. Since they are working through everything, they will know if the project is not running smoothly, which can lead to a lack of motivation that has severe consequences on the project’s success and your company. It is challenging to continue to work hard on a project you know will not go as planned, so you must learn how to manage this project adequately to avoid absenteeism or presenteeism.
Reputational Damage
Poor project management will eventually lead to reputational damage. Word spreads quickly throughout industries, so while you may be able to overcome one bad project, persistent issues can harm your company. Other clients will read reviews and believe you are not up to the task. Instead, they will look elsewhere, which could make your company fall behind competitors.
How To Manage Large Projects
Learn From Your Last Project
Unless this is your first-ever project, you should have data and evidence from previous projects that you can learn from. Even successful projects do not lack problems, but you should have managed to overcome them.
Take these lessons from previous projects and apply them to your approach for this project. If you’ve never worked on a project of this scale before, consider issues on smaller projects and determine what you would do if they happened again. The answer won’t be perfect, but it doesn’t need to be. All that matters is that you have a plan to mitigate issues.
Define Your Expectations
As the project manager, you are responsible for defining expectations and ensuring everyone understands what you and the client want from the project. Before you start, meet with your team and outline everything you expect, including timescales and results.
You mustn’t over-promise during this meeting, as this is just one of the many problems that can arise from poor management. However, you also don’t want to be too casual. You should have put together a team that is more than capable.
Assign Everyone A Role
Although your team is capable, they may need you to guide them initially. Assigning everyone a specific role within their teams and even sub-teams can keep them on track. This way, they know what you expect from them, and they should understand how to move from one task to the next upon completion.
However, remember you don’t need to be too rigid with this approach. Sometimes, you might discover that certain employees are not as suited for roles as you expected. In cases like this, consider flexibility. Move people around to boost efficiency, especially if one team has completed their side of the project.
Set Up A Project Base
While remote working software has made it easier to stay in constant communication no matter where you are, an assigned project base is always effective. Depending on the type of project you’re overseeing, this could be a portable office or a makeshift port with plastic roof sheets to provide shelter (especially on construction sites).
Establishing a project base will make it easier to meet with other project members while also giving you somewhere to operate from. This can be more convenient than working at home or the office if the project is further away.
Outline Your Timeframe
A designated time frame can help you and your teams stay on track. You know as well as anyone else that issues can occur during a project, so it’s worth giving yourself enough leeway to accommodate delays.
Still, it’s risky to be too flexible. Time quickly creeps up on you, so don’t think you can wait around for a couple of weeks here and there. Remind everyone of the timeframe as often as you can (once every two weeks is sufficient) to keep the end date in mind. You can also assign dates when specific parts of the project must be completed.
Request Regular Updates
Along with a timeframe, you can guarantee success by requesting regular updates from department heads. Here, it is best to check in once a week to understand their progress. However, you don’t want to seem like you’re hounding the team, as this can lead to a lack of motivation and make them feel they’re being micromanaged.
If certain steps are expected to take longer, hold off on your progress reports to give them time to make the progress you expect. You should also remind them to reach out to you if they encounter issues rather than wasting time trying to overcome the issue themselves.
Meet With Leaders
Email updates can be beneficial, but it’s also worth conducting in-person meetings with team leaders to learn more. You can carry out meetings with everyone at once, meet individually, or do a combination of the two. This should give everyone a chance to bring botany concerns to the table but it should also be used to encourage them and thank them for their hard work.
Use Software
Technology has made project management much easier. It benefits organization and communication, giving you a singular hub to discuss the project with everyone else. If you can find a software solution that suits you, it will also enable you to check off completed sections that can be ideal for motivation and show that you are making progress even if it doesn’t feel like you are.
There are various great project management software options available that can help your team stay on track.
Keep An Eye On Your Budget
Excellent software will also help you keep a close eye on your budget. Many larger projects are at risk of going over budget if you’re not careful, so tracking your expenses and remaining funding is vital. If you notice the budget becoming too low, you can hold emergency meetings with team leaders and discuss how to go about continuing the project successfully. This should also enable you to speak to the client and alert them to any issues as quickly as possible.
Maintain A Positive Project Environment
No one wants to work on a project that feels like a slog but the various problems that could arise can create a toxic environment, especially if some departments feel they’re holding up their end, but don’t see that from others. While avoiding this can be tricky, you must remind everyone of the primary goal. Work with departments to ease concerns and encourage everyone to contribute fairly to ensure people do not feel they are being taken advantage of.
Success
Project management success can seem complicated, but this checklist and advice should guide you in the right direction. If you are an experienced project manager, you should be well aware of many of these points, but for novices, this advice can be crucial for helping you manage the many moving parts and different needs of the project.