Hidden project issues – waiting to pounce!

Project problems are lurking that evade even the best risk management planners. Typically, these are items external to the project or are within the project but kept secret. Here is a review of the most common items to consider adding to your risk management plans.

Hidden agendas. While the purpose of most projects is well understood, key stakeholders can harbor other unstated objectives. The PM who listens carefully can hear hints when this is the case. An example is hearing vague statements like “that will clear things up,” where the things ‘needing to be cleared up’ aren’t shared. You might also hear people uncomfortable with change refer to keeping the current process, when in fact, new processes would generate improvement. This also surfaces when the purpose of a project receives support, but how the project achieves that purpose surfaces angst. For example, a manager might support a 10% reduction in cost, but not if that means staff will be cut to achieve that objective. If you suspect a hidden agenda is lurking, meet with your sponsor and stakeholders to generate an open discussion.

Competing priorities. Sometimes, public enemy #1 for a project is other projects! Risk plans should be written with project priorities in mind. Higher priority projects can divert your project resources and occupy time with senior leaders who need to help make project decisions. Understand where the project sits in the overall priority scheme and plan your resources and schedule accordingly.

Operational issues. Often, the most critical project resources are people who understand the day-to-day processes of the business. Without their knowledge and support, the changes the project makes in the business could create issues. Yet, operational issues can take these critical resources away from the project. Here are a couple of recommendations to address this:

• Work with your sponsor to create a workload priority list for operational personnel, so they clearly understand when they should work on the project versus addressing operational issues
• Build buffer time into the project schedule to accommodate instances when operational team members will be unavailable. (This is often the case with finance personnel who address account closing activities each month.)

Burnout. Understand the workload level for key team members. They may need a break to work on the project effectively. Change fatigue, which occurs when frequent process or project-related changes necessitate learning and adjustment, can also reduce the productivity of project staff. Take time to understand the workload level and the degree of change that key staff and stakeholders have recently handled. If needed, work with management to give them a break or adjust your schedule to allow for additional time for task completion. (Adjusting your schedule may be a “hard sell,” but if team members are burnt out or suffering change fatigue, elongated task completion times are likely to happen.)

Power shifts. The process changes that projects produce should increase efficiency, reduce cost, or facilitate new products for the marketplace. Those changes can have a substantial effect on decision-making in various areas of the business. A department or functional leader whose decision-making authority is reduced or eliminated is likely to resist project changes. Surfacing and working through this in advance is optimal. If that isn’t possible, risks should be logged to address the pushback and delays that power shifts might cause.