Overcoming Obstacles Of A Project

It is almost a given that there will be unforeseen circumstances during that lifecycle of any project that may threaten that success of the project. Successful project managers take on project with apprehension in order to quickly identify and mitigate any obstacles that may impede the overall success of the project. It is important to recognize that these potential impediments to the success of the project could be both internally and externally driven. For example, a client deciding change his or her needs or desires in the middle of the project would be an internal factor, while a change in any socioeconomic factors that affect the project would be considered an external influence. In the project planning and definition stages, a scope document …show more content…
Hope Creep misleads project managers into thinking that the allocated work is on schedule” (Management-hub.com, 2014). This is typical because workers on a project do not like to disappoint their manager and tell themselves that they will be able to make up the lost time or missed work. This is very dangerous to a project especially if the project manager is not always present at the work site to perform a hands-on progress analysis. An example of Hope Creep would be a programmer failing to meet a deadline on a systems development project and stating otherwise to the project manager. To deter this from happening, project manager should conduct frequent work breakdown assessment to determine if the work tasks are on schedule and meet the stated requirements. The project manager can also keep Hope Creep under control by verifying that the entries made on status reports are …show more content…
Feature Creep typically results from the desire to impress the client by adding extra features into the product or service which were not indicated in the originally stated requirements. Contrary to Scope Creep which is sometimes initiated by the client, the changes in Feature Creep is usually prompted by the service provider rather than the client. Although the intentions of the changes may be good-willed, it is important to remember that project success is dependent on the user’s or client’s expectation rather than the project manager or team. Feature changes may also be uncalled for as the customer or end user may not wish to have the extra fittings. An example of this feature creep would be a web designer who decides a social media feature to a client’s web design that links the business website to the client personal social media account. Although this feature could have some potential benefits, the client did not request this and may prefer that his or her business life remain separated from their social life. A deter Feature Creep would be instruct and remind all project participants and stakeholders to adhere to the scope and requirements definitions documents and seek the proper approval through the proper channels before diversion from the plan is