Project Execution Challenges: Having the Skills Needed to Deliver

In our last series, we covered the challenges and solutions to project strategy. This series will cover the challenges and solutions to project execution. Today, we will discuss the challenges around the initial specifications and ongoing governance of the business case.

Once you have set the initial specifications for a project, the next challenge is that many organizations simply do not have the horses in the stable to execute their initiatives. This can come in the form of not having enough people or not having the appropriate skills; it can also come at the management level or at the practitioner level, and any combinations of those possibilities. Each of these permutations will be redressed in the Execution Solutions series.

Even with the right people available, they can still underperform. Team building and personal growth activities are often not taken seriously.

When the team atmosphere is not strong, it is then susceptible to people problems. Rather than trying to solve these problems, many organizations immediately resort to compromise-oriented solutions, which leaves all parties dissatisfied. After enough compromises, it can chip at team morale. This is exacerbated when project managers are asked to make to keep the schedule and budget as originally defined and the team is asked to take on the challenges of fitting an oversized reality into a under-sized budget and schedule.

When things get truly bad, there is attrition with necessary resources leaving the team that then need to be replaced, further delaying the project and costing the organization money.

Learn how to address the staff-related deficiencies on your project team.

To read our post on the challenges meeting the original business case, click here.

To read our post on managing the project plan and schedule, click here.