Construction project management planning obstacles

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Any construction project is likely to have more than its fair share of possible pitfalls. A project manager needs to be able to keep their site running safely, smoothly, on budget and within schedule. Even for those with the right PM certification this can be a difficult task. 

It is common for a construction project to go over budget or suffer significant delays and there are a number of obstacles that a project manager will come across along the way that can be a real challenge. 

Insufficient risk management

It is usual to put measures in place in case of long-term risks in your project. However, all too often the short-term issues are left out of the loop. These are the issues that a construction project manager needs to be concerned about because they can quickly escalate. These issues include unreliable subcontractors, conflicts in schedules, or a change in the ideas of the stakeholders. A contingency plan is a must. This might be a little left aside on the budget or some wiggle room on the schedule. 

Lack of structure

If a project doesn’t have clear goals, then it can be difficult to complete the work in a timely fashion. If there are no clear targets, a construction project can quickly hit issues, and a lack of goals means it is difficult to hold someone accountable. Performance management is really important to project management and in order to ensure this is implemented everyone needs to be kept on task and have clearly defined tasks to perform. Bigger projects need to be broken down so that they can be completed easily. Those tasks that are not completed on time roll over into the next one and it can quickly cause a delay. 

Poor communication

Communication is one of those important project management skills that is essential to the smooth running of any project If your project does not have clear and effective communication then important details can be missed. This can mean unexpected issues can be delayed in reporting and the project can suffer from delays, budget issues or both. Clear lines of communication must be set up and followed and, in many cases, this is most easily done by using software that is specifically designed to use in project management. There are some software programs that are adapted for construction projects.

Bad forecasting and unrealistic expectations

Sometimes stakeholders have unrealistic expectations with their project brief, this might be an unrealistic completion date, a small budget or both. They may also have some unrealistic ideas of what is possible from the project, and this can make it very difficult to draw up a plan. Scope creep is also an obstacle that can hamper the progress of a project, small alterations may not have too much impact on the plan but too many and it can be difficult to complete a project to the agreed deadline and budget.

There are any number of obstacles that can occur in this category that can have a significant impact on a project.

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