Project Management
Contents
FsaeIllumina's 5 Common Project Management Mistakes
1. Skipping Reviews
Always have someone other than the designer take 30min to a few hours to spin the cad model themselves in a full vehicle assembly to fully review parts before sending an order out. Do an interference check. Ask how it will be made and assembled. Check for clearances. That holes align. It's a common mistake to try to save time think you'll review after sending, or for project managers to focus on hitting "send to supplier" dates instead of "detailed peer review" dates.
2. Quietly Miss Internal Deadlines
There's the common idea that "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". While this may be true, and your team gets a big push in the days leading up to the deadline, when the day arrives and things aren't complete, what then? The team may be burnt out from the big push. The worst thing project managers can do is to not acknowledge the missed deadline. Missed and unacknowledged deadlines can make all future internal deadlines meaningless. Instead, acknowledge the delay, push back the deadline to a new date, and see point number 3.
3. Inability to Adjust Scope, Resources, or Both
Project managers need to be flexible. When a project is behind schedule, doing the same thing (now with LESS time than originally budgeted) won't magically bring it back onto schedule.
