Everything You Need to Know About Delivering IT Projects On Time

Here’s good news for the IT companies who are tired of extending the deadlines of projects, risking the reputation at the client’s end.

Have you ever thought what’s going wrong and how to get things straight so that you can complete your projects and deliver them on time?

More than often, you have the right resources and even have enough and more time and yet fail to deliver.

The first thing you need to do is to identify the issues and then resolve them.

What Are The Hurdles For IT Projects Completion? 

Unrealistic Targets

This is the most common issue with most of the IT projects.

The Marketing team will be bent on pitching the client in any way possible and sometimes they make unrealistic commitments which fall heavy on the project team.

It can also be a mistake from the project manager’s part. Poor estimations passed on to the marketing team may also result in unrealistic targets being set.

Overworked Resources

This is a major issue with many IT companies even though there are millions of talented people available in our country. The issue starts with either mapping the wrong resources to the requirements or fewer resources against what is requested for a project.

When the wrong resources are allotted for a project, like trainees allotted against the experienced ones requested for, the allotted resources as well as the rest of the team will have to struggle to meet the deadlines which were calculated considering experienced resources.

Similarly, when the company has many projects, some projects may not get as many resources as requested which also jeopardizes the plans. Sometimes poor planning results in overlapping of work which ends up frustrating the resource and they are overworked.

Poor Planning

Planning is an important aspect of any project and if the plan is poor, the project is bound to fail.

There are many aspects to look into during the planning process such as job allocation, time management, and timely revision.

It is a continuous process and requires experience and software to track the plans in real-time.

Poor Team Management

The team has to work towards accomplishing a common goal of project completion or else, it will become a total failure.

Different sections of the team or the various teams involved in the project have to coordinate with each other in a timely manner to make sure everything is proceeding as per the plans.

Communication is an important factor that is key to the success of any team. The poorly managed team can result in a disastrous project.

Absent or Poor Risk Management

Risk management is an inevitable part of all types of projects.

In the IT fields, there are many risks to be considered and accounted for properly. If risk analysis, planning, resource and time buffering are not done for the project, it may fail miserably.

Risks are planned and estimated for from the initial stages and accordingly only the commitments are made. If this aspect is not considered from the estimation time, the project may end up being a complete loss if some contingency occurs.

How to Avoid or Overcome These Hurdles and Complete the Project on Time?

This is the most interesting part.

We know the issues and let us find out how to avoid or overcome these hurdles.

Unrealistic Targets

The marketing team has to make sure they consult with the project team before they commit a milestone.

The company has to invest on good project management software which will include proper estimation which has to be communicated to the marketing team based in which they commit the targets.

Overworked Resources

Proper resource and job allocation has to be ensured for completing a committed project on time. If the required resources are not available, the organization has to recruit them, outsource the work or reschedule the targets.

Poor Planning

An experienced project manager with good project management software can easily prepare a proper project plan that will coincide with the organizational goals.

Poor Team Management

To an extent, this can also be overcome with project management software which has alerts to follow up and report when the allocated job is not completed on time.

This real-time data will keep the project managers informed about the real-time status and they can take immediate action to make sure the project is completed on time.

Risk Management

Buffering some time for known risks such as resource shortage or power outage can help manage to complete the project on time without risking the reputation of the organization.

Competent project management software may also have provisions for risk management.

In short, competent project management system, an experienced project manager, well-coordinated teams and proper planning can ensure project completion and delivery on time.

Happy resources will be happy to put in extra time for meeting the deadlines which the project manager can ensure along with the management.