Errors Of Judgement

There’s not a Project Manager in the world that doesn’t want to just get on with the project and get away from all those admin tasks, that seem to be getting in the way of making progress on the job. The fact is that showing impatience or avoiding those administration tasks is just one of the bad errors of judgment you can make as a Project Manager.

Planning errors. #

OK, so making a planning error is nothing new and, by and large, if we’re totally honest we’ve all made planning errors. That’s not a problem providing you fully understand why the error occurred and take preventative steps to avoid repeating it. However, the best and easiest way to avoid making errors of judgment in the first place when planning is to fully involve others in your work. Although you’re the Project Manager and have responsibility for bring the project in on time and to budget – that’s not to say you’re the only one who should be planning it. So bring in other specialists to help you with the planning and be prepared to make several revisions to your work plan, in order to fine tune it as and when more information becomes available.

Maintain your project charter. #

As alluded to in the introduction – failing to maintain an up to date project charter is a serious error of judgment to make. Sure you know exactly what stage the project is at, sure you know what everyone is currently working on and sure you know all the staff working for you know all about what to do. The problem is – what if one of those key workers is suddenly ill or quits the job! Can you afford the time to take the newcomer through everything that’s happened to date and what they should be doing – or can you refer them to a fully up to date and fully documented project charter? Keeping project documentation up to date is a chore – but ignore it at your peril!