Good project management is essential whether you’re creating a new website or app, or refitting your store. All projects need managing if you’re going to finish them close to schedule and on or near budget, and the work of the project manager is pivotal to the success of any planned development.
It’s very unusual for even the most skilled of project managers to get through an entire project without encountering some sort of difficulty or delay, and one of the key skills of the project manager is to be able to identify and deal with the kinds of problems they’re likely to face during the course of the enterprise.
What kinds of problems can come up?
Whenever you put a plan in place, you’re assuming certain things that you can’t know for sure. For instance, you might assign a specific staff member to a particular role, and organize the remaining staff to cover their regular work, or bring in extra help for the duration of the project. What you can’t anticipate is the staff member who’s needed for the project going off sick, or becoming unavailable for some reason. You then have to find a replacement for them, as well as rearranging all the cover you put in place.
There are many variables that could affect your project, from a significant fall or rise in the exchange rate to unforeseen price rises, legal issues, changes being made at a higher level, and problems with the way your website works. A well-designed project has a plan that takes account of as many variables as possible, but you can’t foresee every potential hump in the road, or the extent to which those humps you did foresee are going to affect the project. Identifying issues in good time is essential to minimize their effect on the project.
How do I identify issues in my project?
Identifying issues in your project demands constant vigilance, so, for example, you might need one person in your team to monitor fluctuations in the market and keep you up to date with any changes that could affect the project, or relay forecasts from industry experts. You should also assess the progress of each aspect of the project as you go along so you can spot problems before they get any worse.
If your project is a new website for instance, then using a specialist website performance management company like digivante.com to test the site will ensure any bugs, usability, security, and access issues are identified in good time. It’s far better to catch these problems in their earliest stages before they start affecting all the other functions of the site, and it’s crucial to have any issues sorted before the site goes live. If you don’t, your team’s effort is going to be wasted when the site crashes on day one, or customers can’t check out their shopping carts.
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Constant vigilance are the watchwords of project management, but make sure you don’t bear all the burden yourself. Get your team members involved, so they report specific concerns to you, while you keep a wider perspective.