Project Performance: What Questions Await You at the PM Door?

Iryna Viter . Last Update: December 1, 2023 . Project Management . 6 mins READ 0 comments

Have you ever wondered why projects often lead you up a blind alley? According to a 2016 Wellington Project Management Survey on the State of Project Management, 46% of organizations never or sometimes have a history of success. Projects tend to fall behind schedule, multiple project managers fight for resources, the team doesn’t prioritize effectively, and the impact and feasibility of adding new projects to the pipeline is unknown. How can you beat the odds with confidence and release projects that deliver?

PM experts at the University of Ottawa estimate that 33% of projects flop because they lack involvement from senior management. These questions will help you get involved and show you how to herd your team of cats to project success.

Do you have enough resources to finish projects on time?

While managing your projects, you should clearly know whether your current number of team members is sufficient to complete the project in a given timeframe. To find the best combination of people to work on tasks, you may go different ways. Learning on expert judgment, you may trust your tasks to professionals who are experienced in the PM domain. However, it is much easier to use project management software that can help you estimate resource needs and constraints.

How much pressure should you apply for better team output?

Make sure that your employees do not overwork. The experts at Cornerstone admit that 68% of US full-time employees are suffering from work overload. Excessive working hours are stressful and eventually lead teams to be less productive.

According to Harvard Business Review, by putting too much pressure on your workforce, you will likely “stifle the creativity required to come up with new ideas, trigger fear of taking a wrong step in a high-stakes situation, or unleash frenetic but ineffective activity.”

To prevent overload and restore your team’s focus, start implementing effort-based workloads and provide your employees with clear priorities so they do not fire shots into the darkness. Check that every team member knows what the others are doing. This will speed up your processes and result in timely project completion.

Do you need to hire more people or train your workforce in new skills?

Predictive analytics has gone far enough to provide you with data regarding the impact and feasibility of adding a new project to your pipeline. When controlling workloads, predictive analytics can also spot free time and reinforce learning. Train your employees and provide them with opportunities to develop. Dale Carnegie’s and MSW’s study reports that engaged employees exhibit enthusiasm, inspiration, and confidence.

What should my team focus on today?

What is the most effective sequence of tasks? Building a sequential chain of tasks is a time-consuming process, but it is even more difficult to keep your employees on the same page and organize them to do the tasks that are really urgent. It’s pretty much like herding cats. Clear priorities, however, will prevent your employees from unnecessary meandering based on intuition. Project management tools like Epicflow can now draw up suggested lists of priorities based on smart route algorithms. With these lists, your team will be able to head in the right direction even when you’re on vacation.

Projects tend to be successful when you can answer these questions at any moment. Luckily, you no longer have to worry about possible ways about how to respond. Epicflow is the project management software that allocates resources and sets priorities, at the same time helping you respond to all the above-mentioned questions. Thanks to Epicflow’s features, you’ll be able to increase project awareness, coordinate better, and improve your business performance.