What are Project Constraints and How to Manage Them?
Did you know a study published in the Harvard Business Reviews states that one in every six project costs more than 200 percent of the estimated amount? Control Plus is a software that helps project managers and the team to complete clients requirements and manage time, budget and scope constraints.
Project management is a comprehensive and complex field of work that requires extensive practice, skills, knowledge, and expertise. Despite the plethora of resources, certifications and expert advice available today, project management continue to hold its place as one of the most challenging professions. A study by Gallup shows a staggering fact that only 2.5% of companies successfully complete 100% of their projects. The reasons behind this phenomenon can be many and although frameworks such as agile project management have streamlined this field to a huge extent, project managers continue facing issues and roadblocks on a daily basis. Control plus is software that helps project managers and teams complete client requirements and manage time, budget, and scope constraints. It helps to compare & plan more Projects at the same time with live Portfolio Gantt Portfolio Gantt is the next level of multi-project planning which enables you to manage multiple projects at the same time. One of the most common issues facing companies today is that they concentrate their management efforts on executing individual projects, but fail to understand the impact of these on the wider business.
The result is a sub-optimal performance and lower returns for the business as a whole. The typical challenges facing business today when managing projects include:
- Misalignment between projects and their business objectives: The purpose of a project is to advance one or more business objectives. Most projects start out closely aligned with these objectives, but gaps inevitably appear. Projects drift and business objectives change and evolve. Without redirection, projects and deliverables end up failing to meet expectations.
- Late or delayed projects: Late projects wreak havoc, delaying the time at which a company can start reaping business benefits, thwarting precise payback period calculations and disrupting the long term return on investment.
- Dependency conflicts: Most projects are interrelated, sharing people, equipment, resources and deliverables. These dependencies mean that a single project delay has a significant ripple effect on related projects, disrupting schedules, causing resource conflicts and even triggering expensive contingencies, in order to minimize risks.
- Execution difficulties: Problematic execution wastes resources, time and opportunities, diverts management attention and hinders project delivery.
- Overlapping and redundant projects: Overlapping projects are responsible for major inefficiencies and wasted budgets, time and resources. At their worst, they undermine each other’s progress and potential benefits. Redundant and duplicative projects are also unprofitable, increasing costs, prolonging schedules and diverting resources from more deserving projects.
- Resource conflicts: Companies rarely have sufficient resources to staff all projects concurrently. As such, projects compete against each other for resources, and people are often assigned to several projects at the same time. Those with special expertise of scarce skills may be in high demand, causing bottlenecks.
- Unrealized business value: A project is a means to an end. Ultimately, every project generates deliverables that the company uses to derive business value. When those deliverables arrive late or are incomplete, the business loses opportunities – whether to earn revenues, acquire customers or perhaps fix a problem.
- Diffused decision making: Many executives are unable to obtain the right information at the right time to effectively understand the present position of the business in order to communicate unwelcome surprises and/or communicate potential opportunities before the competition.
- No accountability: Failure to continuously monitor and communicate project milestones in real time, and budget performance, dilutes project accountability and responsibility.
- Fragmentation: Fragmented planning and resource processes and tolls lead to an inability to systematically communicate and fine tune multiple project scenarios, resulting in regular unforeseen slippages and problems.