By Brian Thomas

We’ve all seen it. You are on a team, or placed on a specific project in order to accomplish a goal for the company, and things just don’t go very smoothly. It’s easy to point fingers but it can actually be quite difficult to figure out what happened when the project fell apart or fell short of its objectives. In this article we are going to look at project management specifically, and how to spot early warning signs that things may not be on the rails for much longer.  

Lack of Communication

By some estimates, more than 50% of a Project Manager’s time is spent performing some aspect of communication. This can include meetings, status reporting, emails, phone calls, coordinating, talking to people, and completing documentation. Studies have even suggested that verbal and written communication takes up 80% of the job. 

Poor communication manifests in many ways throughout a project. You’ll find yourself in a position where stakeholders aren’t aware of changes or task assignments. Assignments are started late, or not at all, because there was confusion over who owned a task. Deadlines tend to “sneak up” on people because they were notified to late in the process.

Lack of Detail

First, it’s important to point out that most PMs are not responsible for many of the minute details within a project. There are others who handle details within specific tasks. PMs tend to delegate these details.

Even though Project Managers themselves don’t handle the details, that doesn’t make them irrelevant. It’s incredibly important for Project Managers to be aware of what details are to be developed further. If a project is moving forward at too high a level, without any executable details, there is a breakdown in the project.

Unclear Process

A clear and precise process is the backbone to any great project. The process itself is there to guide and act as mediator between stakeholders. Should there be questions or discrepancies, you can always lean on the process to help settle issues and guide people. As your company continues to grow, stronger processes are needed in order to allow the business scale   

If people are unclear about what to do within a project or when to perform specific actions, there is more than likely a breakdown in the process. No one wants to be a slave to process, but they are so important for managing successful projects. 

Missing or unclear documentation

So many aspects of good project management require methodical documentation. This includes things like status reporting, complete communication plans, changes in scope, and project charters. It’s one thing for all of these things to be developed during a project, but without documentation they can be altered, forgotten or ignored.

If you are unsure where to find specific documents, or if you find yourself in a position where you need guidance, and can’t find anything to guide you, there is a documentation problem within your project. Be sure to write things down, regardless of how specific or “un-important” it may seem at a time. You will thank yourselves later when you need to look something up and need to be reminded of previous decisions.

No clear leader

PMs need to be the driving force behind decisions and the scope of the project. They provide huge value on a project, which has to include pushing back when a client is asking for things that aren’t within the scope of the initial contract. If the client raises a request that’s out of scope, which unfortunately happens all too often, the PM needs follow the processes your organization has developed to handle such contract expansions. Organizations can be too quick to please clients, and scared to anger them, so that the contracts they signed with their clients become less and less profitable due to increasing workloads without payment. 

Sometimes there is no clear accountability. Who is to blame should things go wrong here, and do they know that? If there isn’t a clear answer to these 

If you’re working within a contract on specific projects and find that you are constantly adding tasks or “one offs” that are not within the original scope of the project, there is a real problem with leadership on that project.

Where projects are challenged, look out for these warning signs, but better yet, make sure that your projects are managed in such a way that these things don’t happen.

About the Author:

Brian Thomas is from Enlightened Digital, a digital magazine dedicated to the top tech and business news, updates and analyses from around the web – your guide to everything at the cutting edge of technology.