Avoid These 3 Pitfalls As A Junior PM
A junior project manager faces a lot of challenges. Below are three common ones to look out for.
As a new project manager, I know it can be intimidating to be thrown into a project. There are a lot of moving parts, managing scope, the team and stakeholders, just to name a few.
We’ll go through some of the main challenges of new project managers and how you can manage them.
Scope Creep
Scope creep is something that all project managers at any level have to deal with and find challenging. The main problem with scope creep is that as more information is uncovered as the project progresses, the better understanding that the stakeholders have and the more features that they request. And the project has a finite budget and time to deliver the agreed scope in the first place.
Now some scope creep is a result of a better understanding of the requirements and there is an argument that it’s part of the original scope.
For example, the project may have a requirement that all customers should have access to a portal that verifies their identity regularly. As the project delves into that requirement, they may realise that not all customers are the same. What about new migrants and those under 18 who may not have sufficient documentation for this? This may result in a different approach to each customer segment. Is this scope creep or a part of the existing requirement?
Flexible solution
Having a project vision statement and clear objectives supporting the vision statement will help manage scope creep. The project team and stakeholders can run past any new requirement or existing requirement against this vision statement and objectives to see whether it meets it or not.
If it doesn’t, then the requirement is dropped or put in the backlog.
Prioritisation of the backlog is also another way to manage scope creep. Prioritising each feature or requirement helps the project team and stakeholders understand what is the minimum viable product, and what features are nice to have. Stakeholders’ default is to make everything must-haves. This is where having strong communication skills can help facilitate a conversation to manage backlog prioritisation. And if these new features or requirements are a must-have then the timeline and budget would need to be extended.
Using a Work Breakdown Structure can help manage scope.
Communicating to Stakeholders
Dealing with stakeholders can be intimidating for new project managers. Especially where the stakeholders are senior, know the domain knowledge well and have experience in delivering projects.
They can be assertive and try to push the new project managers around. They can have unrealistic expectations and not be on the same page as the project manager.
Develop your communication skills and knowledge
Communication skills are critical for the project manager. This is not simply your writing and speaking skills. It is a multifaceted skill set and encompasses the following:
Verbal communication - expressing thoughts, ideas and emotions clearly through the spoken word.
Nonverbal communication - understanding facial expressions, gestures, posture and tone during a conversation.
Written communication - Ability to convert a message, ideas, thoughts and emotions through the written word and in different mediums (e.g. emails or reports).
Listening skills - to be able to listen and process what you hear actively.
Interpersonal skills - ability to interact with people, build relationships and have meaningful conversations.
Persuasion and selling - the ability to persuade or convince others and to sell an idea. Negotiation falls into this category.
Conflict resolution - manage disagreements and come to a win-win situation while maintaining the relationships.
Cross-cultural communication - the ability to understand a diverse audience and communicate with them.
Take a course, read a book and practice them daily. Plan out what you will say in your meetings, how you will approach them, and how you will deal with it if things go wrong. The more you plan, the easier it will be.
Support Network
Find a mentor, a senior PM, who can help and guide you on how to deal with challenging stakeholders and improve your communication skills.
Requirements Management
Software projects are fluid and as new information is discovered, new requirements emerge and existing requirements may change or be discarded. And with tight deadlines and expectations, it is easy to miss requirements and misunderstandings on what is agreed.
This results, in projects not delivering what is expected and results in customer and business outcomes not being met, incomplete requirements and can result in rework for the team. These may impact scope, delivery schedule and costs.
Process to Manage Requirements
Whether you work on a project using Agile delivery or waterfall, you need to put in a process of how to manage requirements. For an Agile project, the process doesn’t need to be detailed or structured but it needs to be agreed by the team and stakeholders.
The framework agnostic process would need to include the following:
Where the requirements will be documented
How the requirements are structured
How the requirements are prioritised
The sign-off process for the requirements
the change process for new or changed requirements
Learning process
As a junior project manager, it can be intimidating to manage your first project. If you approach it with an open mind, a beginner’s mindset you would go a long way in developing your craft as a project manager.
Practice
Pick one of the areas that you want to work on and implement one change.
What will you do?
How will you implement it?
What went well with the change?
What could have been better?
Quote
“There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.” Ryan Holiday
It’s tough not to pass judgment on events, other people and actions. Especially when we are directly affected or our directions affecting things.
For one day, practice not passing any judgment on your actions. Instead of saying “I stuffed that up”, just say “I did this and this happened.” It will be difficult. Then observe how your attitude changes.
Resources
A classic for writing user stories. It’s still my go-to resource for how to write user stories and sizing them. A great book for those learning how to create and manage user stories and for seasoned agile practitioners.
My Resources
Below are some of my free resources if you’re new to project management.
Templates
Paid Resources
Simple and Effective Project Risk Management is for those new to project management, the accidental project manager and experienced PMs wanting to learn something new. It will teach you what you need to know and get you started quickly. I’m running a promotion where the first 10 people who buy this get a discount, pay only $19, and can book a 30-minute coaching call with me.