Applied Software Project Management

Diagnosing Project Planning Problems

If a project is not planned well, it will veer off course fairly quickly. If the project manager does not take the lead in defining the scope immediately, the project will quickly become chaotic. Even if the scope seems to be defined well, the project manager must make sure that all stakeholders really understand and agree to it in order to avoid problems later on in the project. The team must buy into the scope as well, or else they will make decisions that are not in line with the project goals.

Lack of Leadership

It's not uncommon for people to intuitively feel that all they need for a project to be successful is a group of highly talented and motivated people. But even the best people will have trouble starting a project if nobody takes the lead.

One common problem that comes from a lack of leadership is tunnel vision. Each team member knows how to do her specific tasks; however, there's no way to plan for every detail of that task. She will almost certainly encounter decision points. For example, she may see a better way to solve a particular problem that will cost time but lead to a better solution. For some projects, it may be appropriate to pursue this; for others, the delivery schedule is more important than the superior solution.

Without good leadership, the team member might be afraid to make this decision. This usually results in the team member sending emails to peers, managers, stakeholders, and anyone else she can find, requesting ...