Project and Programme Managers – What Keeps You Up At Night?

by Nicki Carruth | Sep 28, 2021 | Programme Assurance

There’s no doubt that being responsible for a project or programme can be a high-stress job at times. Oftentimes that business activity is directly related to a key organisational outcome, with the success of the project having knock-on effects on the future of the business. Consider digital transformation; a process that much of the New Zealand public sector is going through in some way shape or form. These types of programmes are central to making an agency run better and serve New Zealand more capably. Talk to anyone in project management and they’ll have more than a few examples of being up at night with a worry about the status of a project. As former project managers ourselves, we know this all too well. And in many ways, IQANZ exists to help project managers have less of these sleepless nights. In this article we’ll cover some common reasons why project managers have those ‘3 AM moments’, while also sharing some wisdom that hopefully reminds PMs that they’re not alone and these concerns are often better shared rather than shouldered entirely solo.

Timelines slipping

Missed timelines at the micro-level can mount up to missing the macro milestones, which is a reality that all project managers are well aware of. Timelines can be missed due to any number of factors – many of which aren’t in your control as a PM. There are some measures that help set timelines up to be hit at a good rate:

Setting realistic sprints or periods of delivery.
Using your contingency to adjust for optimism bias and build some space to manage the inevitable, unforeseen challenges that will come up.
Protecting the scope of the project to reduce unnecessary changes to business requirements by stakeholders.
High communication with both the steering committee and delivery team.

The stress on timeline slippage is exacerbated when pressure is put on the delivery team and project management by stakeholders lacking full visibility on factors that may be causing this. This just reinforces the need for complete and detailed project reporting, communication and governance in place.

As for causes for timelines blowing out, consider the following:

Does the project delivery team have a full understanding of what’s expected by certain dates?
Are original timeframes now out of date given changes through the lifespan of the project, thus making deadlines unrealistic?
Are there inefficiencies with the project delivery team? Is there a smarter way of allocating workloads to help improve this?
Do you have enough resources to be able to deliver on time?

Missing timelines isn’t fun for any project manager, but we’d suggest focusing more on solutions based on what your learnings to date are – there are few projects that have no chance of success.

Over budget

While the goal is always to land project delivery within budget (and part of what IQANZ supports organisations to do), we’re here to reassure project managers that budget overrun is incredibly common. If you’ve worked as a PM for any significant period, you’ll have encountered challenges with an imbalance of project progress and burn rate of budget.

Going over the forecasted project expenditure isn’t a straightforward issue to resolve. There’s usually more than one factor at play that causes an overage. Some common sources of budget overage include:

Inaccurate scoping or estimates – estimating the budget required for each stage of the project isn’t an easy thing to do. It needs close analysis and consideration of risks or unforeseen events. Any gaps in the estimate or lack of sufficient contingency will almost certainly create a budget blowout.

Scope creep and requirements changing – a project may evolve over time, with additional business demands necessitating extra resources or budget. Provided these changes are approved at all levels and they help the organisation better deliver on the business objectives, changes aren’t necessarily a bad thing. However, much of the unneeded budget overages from scope creep are due to small tweaks or additions that single stakeholders may request. In these situations, it’s important to have a strong project scope laid out on which to refer to when making decisions around whether to accept or deny these scope changes.
Dependencies or roadblocks – projects will often require input from various teams and stakeholders. The process of delivery is based upon a logical flow of tasks and approvals. When task B is reliant upon task A to be completed before commencing, any delays will knock the entire project out of alignment. The outcome of roadblocks in a project means certain sprints or deliverables are extended in time, and staff resources aren’t able to be as efficient with their time.

In reality, there are dozens of reasons why a project budget goes over. A project manager may find pressure from certain parts of the business when this budget goes over, which can certainly cause a few sleepless nights. But it’s important that PMs feel empowered to push back when the root of issues lie outside of the delivery team. Organisations will not stop budget wastage without allowing a transparent review of all parts of the equation. It’s one of the reasons independent quality assurance is so valuable to helping a project succeed; we apply our methodology to the entire business to correctly identify issues and quickly get to solutions.

Project team members leaving

Staff leaving is stressful for any manager – how will the departing team member’s workload be carried out? The short term impact to the team can mean others in the team are asked to work extra until a suitable replacement is found. Best case scenario members of the project give ample notice (4 weeks), allowing some breathing room to find a replacement. This isn’t always the case, however, with some team members disappearing quickly.

Firstly, it’s important that project managers keep communication high with the rest of the stakeholders and steering committee if this departure will cause delays to the project. Any reasonable person should understand that staff leaving is simply part and parcel of business. However, if the project is experiencing a concerning staff attrition rate, it may be time to conduct a review on the state of the project team:

Are the team members feeling connected to the work they’re doing?
Are there some recurring frustrations the team is experiencing that may be decreasing motivation?
Are the expectations of each sprint/phase realistic? What is the work rate like?
Is there enough communication to the team on a daily basis?
Are you getting in front of potential issues before they build?

Sometimes a long term project can feel like there’s no end in sight for the team, which is why continual stand-ups and status updates are important. Celebrating mini successes constantly helps keep everyone’s focus on the objectives. As soon as we lose purpose in our work, we’re far more likely to look elsewhere.

Changing scope

We’ve talked about scope changes’ impact on a budget already, but broadly the stress of changing demands of a project team by the wider business can cause PMs plenty of sleepless nights. It’s not unusual for a PM to feel caught in between two equally important stakeholders’ conflicting requests – such as features on a technical solution.

Protecting the project scope isn’t just a matter of referring back to governance and documentation in place, but requires some skill in dealing with different personalities. What might feel like a critical feature to one stakeholder might not make sense within the context of this project (and perhaps is better suited to a future project). Telling people no in a professional way is a skill that PMs will fine-tune over their careers.

Changing the scope of a project or a specific part of a project’s delivery can be the source of anxiety given that changes are typically not made with the same level of rigour as the initial scoping of the project – often due to the time pressure. Therefore PMs and their team can feel on the back foot and less in control when incorporating a feature change.

Conflicting motivations between stakeholders

Many project managers can add ‘mediator’ to their list of acquired skills during their careers. Large projects have effects on many business units, in terms of workflow, process and policy. It’s only natural then that leaders within these units will have motivators around influencing the direction and decisions made during the project.

This conflict can be healthy and utilised to achieve a better result with a more well rounded, considered deliverable (such as a platform like an intranet/portal). Improperly managed, these conflicts can cause a great deal of stress to PMs as they’re seemingly unable to please everyone.

Good negotiation skills around stakeholder wishes are easiest when there is strong governance and project scope in place. Any gaps in these frameworks serve as an opportunity to pull a project direction towards the will of the most insistent stakeholder – that’s not what generates the best business outcomes.

Lack of visibility on team progress

Project managers without good up to date knowledge of the team’s work and status of deliverables during a sprint or phase will operate with a baseline level of stress that can be avoided with the right processes in place. When PMs aren’t across the key streams of work and any roadblocks, they’re blindsided by these later when the knock-on effects hit milestones and budgets.

If you are worried that you don’t have full visibility of where the delivery team is at, start addressing this tomorrow. You may need to spend a few days meeting the team and updating project management tools to best reflect the current state of play, but we promise it’ll feel much better once it’s done. Then make sure you keep up the practice so that you’re not left in the dark until it’s too late. The key is to surface any information both at group stand up and 1-1 levels with the team that gives you either the confidence that things are on track or the intel to identify and address an issue.

Not enough support in place

Project Managers are responsible for a lot of components of a project’s success, but make no mistake; they are not solely responsible. Many seasoned PMs with countless successes on their resume has experienced a ‘nightmare’ project due to the deficiencies in the business surrounding the project. Without proper governance, steering committee, communication and the other elements we talk about in Q-Tips, the best PM can end up looking ordinary, having been dealt an impossible task.

This is not to let poor project management off the hook – rather it’s a project manager’s job from day one to ensure that all the frameworks and structure is in place before they attempt to deliver.

PMs – keep the business honest, they’ll be thankful you did.

Need help with your project or programme?

Chat to us if you are having trouble with any aspect of your project. As a team full of former project managers, we understand the challenges you can go through when delivering a project. We’re able to provide support and independent advice for project teams and senior leaders so you have complete clarity around the health of your business initiatives.