6 Challenges Faced by Project Managers

6 Challenges faced by Project Managers
In today’s hyper-volatile business world, It’s not enough for projects to be delivered on
time and within allocated budget, but they also must be in sync with the organizational
strategy. There are instances where even the most forward-thinking strategies fall flat.
According to PMI’s “Pulse of the Profession: The High Cost of Low Performance”, it
found only 42% of organizations reporting high alignment of projects to organizational
business strategy. The role of a program or a project manager in an organization is very
challenging to say the least and they face lot of challenges to ensure their projects
deliver the value that is required. What are the strategic challenges faced by project
managers, and how ready are you?
1. Coping with fast paced changes:
In today’s complex business landscape, changes are inevitable, but quick
changes at regular intervals can impair your organization’s vision. With both
external and internal changes happening at the same time, it becomes all the
more difficult to bring that continuity to a project and an overall program that it
is part of. Changes will be mostly in the form of changes in requirements;
changes in the resource; changes in technology; and changes in
organizational structure.
Now we know the fact that changes can come from any aspect of the project,
enterprises need to address them by approaching flexible frameworks in the
form of The role of a program or a project manager in an organization. Agile
addresses most of these challenges in a systematic way and can effectively
minimize or resolve the challenges faced by the project manager.
2. Type of PMO to be implemented:
This is one of the crucial strategic challenges faced by a project manager in
an enterprise. Yes, not every organization needs a PMO (Project
Management Office), but certain signs indicate you need one. Some of the
signs that your organization needs a PMO are: there are no fixed
management and oversight processes; senior management has trouble while
gathering information on project/program progress; and project goals not
aligning with business goals.
So, when your organization decides to implement a PMO, there is no one-
size-fits-all solution. PMI suggests top 5 PMO frameworks to choose from
which addresses the current existing shortcomings, which are as follows:
o
 PMO Center of Excellence
 Business Unit PMO
 Project-specific PMO
 Enterprise PMO
 Project Support Control Office
To read in detail about these PMO’s click here.

Understanding what type of PMO will help you to achieve your goals will
become all the more important. The right PMO will help in setting the
organization’s Project Management strategy, process improvements that are
related to organizational goals, growing the business, and entering new
markets with improved services.
3. Team members inexperience with new tools:
Handling a project requires an understanding of new development tools and
methods that are key to its successful completion. When these tools and
methods are subject to changes on a monthly basis, even the most
knowledgeable organizations find it difficult to keep up with the changes in
technologies. When clients find that the team members have not upgraded
their knowledge and are not better equipped to handle their work, then they
might look for an advanced service provider who is more reliable with new
tools and methods.
When new technology brings new possibilities, the competition will be more,
and you have to react positively towards these changes. With so many
technology changes, you should be able to convince management to get your
key resources trained in next-gen technologies and methodologies to cater to
complex market demands.
4. Addressing deficit in qualified professionals:
One of the most critical strategic challenges that many organizations across
the globe face are the shortage of qualified professionals who can work on
projects. Be it any area such as IT, finance, healthcare, engineering, there is a
dearth of the resource who can fill job roles of critical importance. Even when
your company finds quality candidates, you have to train them for the new
business environment and get them up to speed with regards to new
technologies and methodologies that your team is part of.
Because companies are reluctant to outsource their key business functions
elsewhere, it is imperative that you convince leadership in your organization
about the importance of training and development in your own organization.
With internal training, your key personnel are being mentored by some of the
best of minds in the field and will be able to seamlessly integrate into key
projects in no time.
5. Decisions influenced by rising competition:
Any project/program for that matter has many stakeholders interested in it due
to various reasons. But enterprises take decisions that are often influenced by
rising competition. Leadership understands they have to intervene to organize
their business to respond to emerging technologies and their influence, so as
to respond to the competitive market demands. In a way, they are right to do
so, if not they will face losses and could affect the overall results. But, as a
project manager, you need to protect
your team from external interference and see whether decisions taken by the
management are in the right context. If it is an unrealistic expectation where
they want numerous changes in features and other things, then it becomes
difficult to deliver the project on time and within the allocated budget.
Moreover, during the project kick-off itself, it needs to be decided about the
type and complexity of changes that need to be accommodated in the project
lifecycle.
6. Frequently collecting requirements from clients:
This collecting requirements frequently from clients can be both good and bad
in a project environment and can be challenging at times. Good thing is, you
can deliver the project that is in line with client requirements and the bad thing
is too many requirements can affect the continuity of the project lifecycle.
There should be a right balance to effectively address the new requirements
that clients are asking for.
There should be a unique approach to handle this customer relationship and
act accordingly without disrupting the project environment. More often than
not, this comes a major obstacle between the organization and the client as
this becomes a significant change for all the parties involved that
communicate with the clients.
To address these strategic challenges you need to be an experienced project/program

manager. Some of the challenges can be seen from time to time whereas some even
you will be encountering for the first time and this becomes a tricky situation while
handling a project. Resolving these challenges requires experience and key personnel
having the right skill set to overcome such critical challenges. Do let us know in the
comment section on how you have addressed strategic challenges in your organization.

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What are some of the strategic challenges faced by project managers according to the passage?

What are the different types of PMOs mentioned in the passage and what are they used for?

6 Challenges faced by Project Managers

To read in detail about these PMO’s click here.

To address these strategic challenges you need to be an experienced project/program

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