{"id":3370,"date":"2022-03-24T16:07:13","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T10:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cloudnowtech.com\/blog\/?p=3370"},"modified":"2022-07-04T15:40:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-04T10:10:12","slug":"miscommunication-the-bane-of-project-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cloudnowtech.com\/blog\/miscommunication-the-bane-of-project-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Miscommunication: The bane of Project Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most tech projects involve two parties – a client, and the technology or software development partner they choose to work with on the project. Such projects are often subject to gaps in communication and understanding between the client-side project manager and their development partner\u2019s team. These gaps can cause friction, which can balloon into real issues and delays. Plug them at the beginning, to ensure that your tech development project goes smoothly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some of the common gaps in project management on a tech project, and how you can address them.<\/b><\/p>\n

Project managers with limited tech knowledge<\/span><\/h3>\n

Client-side IT project managers aren\u2019t always fully aware of what goes into building tech products. This is to be expected – they aren\u2019t subject matter experts, nor do they work directly with the programming languages and platforms that their agency counterparts do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, since the client\u2019s project manager may not completely understand the details of the project, this can cause gaps between client and dev partner. The same points may need to be clarified multiple times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Managers may believe that they are more informed than they really are, as a result of which they refuse to be educated on the subject by their partner. Misunderstandings arising from this kind of mistaken belief can result in unrealistic client expectations, or over-commitment by the partner under pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Failure to build strong project foundations<\/span><\/h3>\n

The initial data gathering, discovery, analysis phase is the most important, as that\u2019s when the foundation of the project is created. If this takes inordinate time, the project can get stuck in a never-ending loop as the project manager keeps seeking inputs and approvals from all internal stakeholders! Worse, if it takes inordinate time, this can result in a rush during the actual development process. When goals are set incorrectly, on the other hand, it can cause cascading issues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your development partner will ask you for goals, KPIs and KRAs, but you may not know the answer – and you may not know whom to ask! In such cases, project managers may take a long time to revert, which further slows the project in the early stage, resulting in rushed work towards the end of the development.<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, a dev partner wants to support their client to complete the project successfully! They often try to paper over the cracks by proposing project targets from their own end. This can set the entire project on the wrong foot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another key area where building a strong project foundation is vital is in the case of app modernization<\/a> projects for legacy applications. In such projects, an existing app is already delivering on specific business objectives, works with certain dependencies, and offers functionalities to address a specific set of requirements. If a project manager is not able to correctly and comprehensively communicate about the intricacies of the legacy system, this may in turn affect feature releases and key deliverables defined for the modernized application.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building trust takes time<\/span><\/h3>\n

Client expectations of time and budget are often unrealistic. This could be because:<\/span><\/p>\n