Challenge #1 - Lack of Visibility of all Projects

A common reason why projects fail is related to visibility. All three tiers of the project team, executive management, project managers, and team members, need access to the right level of information at the right time.

Executive Management

Executives often complain that they do not have visibility into all current enterprise projects. They often do not have access to the project schedules in real-time. Sometimes project managers present the plan at the outset of the project, then become gatekeepers of the schedule, claiming to executives that the schedule has not been updated recently and is not ready to be shared. The sponsors of a project and the executives do not have access to a schedule or reports until it is too late to either re-direct the effort or to cancel the project. The net result that management cares about is the cost of the schedule overruns to the company.

Project Managers

Project managers often put together a schedule and plan at the outset of a project. The schedule does not always get updated for a variety of reasons. The project managers are so preoccupied with managing issues and re-organizing resources that they do not have time to update the tasks on the schedule and review their impacts.

In fast paced environments, project managers are asked to work on several projects at one time. Many project managers attempt to keep pace with the task updates on their project schedules. Those that do, end up acting as 'glorified administrators,' spending a lot of time asking resources about task progress.

Project managers often lack visibility into all of the projects their resources are working on. Many times they share team members with other project managers, so they may not know exactly what tasks the resource is working on that day.

Team Members

The most frequently heard