Project Management for Government Contractors

Project Management Risk Factor #4: Managing Change

Posted by Kabir Mehta on Apr 10, 2018 7:12:00 AM

How Even Good Change Can Hurt Your Long-term Success

The fourth article in our series on Project Management Risk Factors

In the first three articles of this series, we described internal problems that often lead to project failure, problems that can undo a program manager's best efforts to deliver quality projects 

Do you feel like you get punished for doing a good job? If so, this article is for you.  

We're not going to look at technical, environmental, or internal problems that lead to project failure, but issues that often arise from a program manager's success. In other words, when a project succeeds, the program manager can sometimes become a victim of that success. 

 Peter: I don’t like my job. Don’t think I’ll go anymore.

Joanna: You’re just not gonna go?

Peter: Yeah.

Joanna: Won’t you get fired?

Peter: I don’t know. But I really don’t like it and, uh, I’m not gonna go.

Joanna: So you’re gonna quit?

Peter: No, not really. I’m just gonna stop going.

Joanna: When did you decide all that?

Peter: About an hour ago.

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Topics: project management best practices, project management risks, project management risk factors

Project Management Risk Factor #3: Competing Priorities

Posted by Kabir Mehta on Apr 10, 2018 7:12:00 AM

3 Ways a Lack of Support From Senior Management Can Hurt Your Government Contracting Success

Thethird article in our series on Project Management Risk Factors.

No matter how good of a program manager you are, some factors will impact your success over which you have little to no control. Perhaps the biggest factor of all comes from within - your contracting culture and company leadership. We're sharing here three ways company culture and even leadership can hurt your program and personal success: 

  1. Communication & Authority: what does senior management do when customer priorities conflict with corporate priorities? 
  2. Bureaucracy: when an opportunity with a deadline appears, how fast does senior management react? 
  3. Responsibility: does senior management take ultimate responsibility?  

Let's look at these one at a time.

Hello Peter, what's happening? Listen, are you gonna have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?

 

But first, how well-supported is your program by senior management?

Find out, fast - just take our quick assessment:

Take the Program Health & Risk Assessment

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Topics: project management best practices, project management risks, project management risk factors

Project Management Risk Factor #1: Big Challenges

Posted by Kabir Mehta on Apr 10, 2018 7:12:00 AM

3 Kinds of Challenges You Can't Overcome Alone

Thefirst article in our series on Project Management Risks

In this article we're going to look at challenges that are difficult for Program Managers to overcome on their own, without the help of a strong and supportive senior management and strategic planning.

 Make contracting success easier - get the Ultimate Toolkit for Program Managers:

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3 Kinds of Big Challenges

Program Managers face many challenges in their task to deliver successful programs to Government customers. There are however, three categories of challenges that are big enough that PM usually needs more support to overcome them. We have termed these three categories:

  • Technical Challenges
  • Silo Challenges
  • Policy Limitation Challenges
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Topics: project management best practices, project management risks, project management risk factors

Project Management Risk Factor #2: Lack of Alignment

Posted by Kabir Mehta on Apr 10, 2018 7:12:00 AM

3 Kinds of Challenges You Can't Overcome Alone

Thesecond article in our series on Project Management Risks

We have spent a lot of time talking about how important it is to follow Best Project Management Practices when managing your Government contracts. Having a defined, proven process in place is the best way to consistently manage quality projects and delight your customers. However, this is not enough to ensure contracting success, and therefore this series exists to help you reflect on, then avoid or fix scenarios that can kill success. 

The term Lack of Alignment in the title is one way of describing a company that does not have a unified vision and guiding principles to fulfill that vision.

Does your company suffer from a Lack of Alignment? Get an answer just minutes after taking our assessment:

Take the Program Health & Risk Assessment

Though there are many ways a lack of alignment across your teams can prevent you from successfully delivering projects, delighting your customer, and reaching personal goals, this article will explore three of them.

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Topics: project management best practices, project management risks, project management risk factors

Project Management Risk Factors: An Overview

Posted by Kabir Mehta on Apr 10, 2018 7:10:00 AM

A Guide to (Non-technical) Project Management Risks to Avoid or Fix

We've created a hub to help Project Managers succeed in Government Contracting.

On this page, we point you to four Project Management Best Practices that lead to very satisfying results for contractors, such as: 

  1. High CPARs scores 
  2. A Government contract safe from competition 
  3. Business growth through new task orders 
  4. Referrals and opportunities for new programs within your agency 
We've provided tools to make it easy for you to implement these practices, and shared case studies so you can learn and apply our hard-won experiences to increase your own contracting success. 

But even after this—even while following best practices toward project success—there are still variables that can hurt your project or personal success. These are situations you should not only pay attention to, but you should know how to mitigate these risks when possible. 

You can also call these risk factors the Four Horsemen of Project Management Doom 

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Topics: project management best practices, project management risks, project management risk factors

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