4 Common Challenges Faced by an IT Project Manager & their Solutions

As an IT Project Manager, you plan exceptionally well, excel at the art of managing resources, and meet project deadlines despite all roadblocks. Still, you have to handle everyday project management challenges. You have to deal with poorly defined goals, handle unrealistic deadlines, manage scope creeps and work with geographically dispersed teams.

To overcome the project management challenges you need the right tool.  ReQtest is a tool made for IT Project Managers like you to stay on top of their everyday challenges.

Let’s see how ReQtest will handle your top challenges as an IT Project Manager

1. Poorly defined goals suck!

Your very first challenge in a project begins as you have to work with poorly defined goals. You don’t have a clear picture of what you want to achieve through the project. With no clear objectives or a well-documented plan, you will be hunting in the dark.  Your project will suffer when you have no clarity on the project deliverable.

Solution- Document requirements

You need a tool that will help you in defining project goals clearly. ReQtest will help you in getting the exact expectations of all the stakeholders in the project.  ReQtest’s Requirements module helps the stakeholders in adding the business needs of the project. With well-documented requirements in hand, you can easily and clearly define the project goals.

2. Unrealistic project deadlines

When you have limited knowledge of what needs to be done, accurately predicting the end-date of the project is next to impossible. Even if you have well-documented the tasks that need to be performed, any last minutes changes can lead to missing project deadlines.  The unrealistic expectations of the client arise due to their inability to track the progress of the project.

Solution- Tracking project progress in real time

ReQtest helps IT Project Managers and everyone involved in the project to keep track of the project progress.  The stakeholders can track in real-time the tasks that are lined up and the tasks that are finished. Every project team member has holistic information about the tasks they have to perform. The different modules in ReQtest such as Requirements, Tests, and Bugs help the IT Project Managers to easily estimate the project completion deadline. The stakeholders can be aware of the challenges faced by the project team through ReQtest. Hence, mutually agreed achievable deadlines can be set.

3. Handling scope creeps

As a Project Manager, one of your biggest challenges would be scope creeps.  A project may start with different objectives and may take an altogether different direction as it proceeds. The client might prioritize different needs in the middle of the project.  The unpredictable changes can cause a project to fail and may get your reputation as an IT Project Manager on the line.

Solution- Keeping the latest version of requirements

ReQtest will help you stay updated on any scope creeps. It can easily track any changes made to the requirements that can affect the progress of the project. ReQtest will help you plan your activities in a better way. You can organize, prioritize and handle requirements effectively and predict any potential scope creeps beforehand.

4. Working with distributed teams

The agile projects of today require greater collaboration.  The teams in agile projects are usually distributed across different geographical locations. A project team may comprise of members from multiple organizations. The project team may comprise of stakeholders, vendors, and clients themselves.  For an IT Project Manager handling virtual project teams across different locations has its own set of challenges such as different time zones, availability of team members, and tracking progress, etc.

Solution- Improving collaboration through the Agile Board

ReQtest provides your entire project team anytime and anywhere accessibility through its web-based portal to a centralized repository of information. You can collaborate with your remote team members through its visually appealing agile board. Every change that is made to any requirement, test cases or bugs are tracked and automatically updated in the system. ReQtest provides anytime and anywhere access to all the project team members.

Summary

Now you have seen the most common project management challenges and their solutions in ReQtest. The next plausible step for you would be to try out ReQtest to explore all its features and benefits. The good part is that ReQtest comes with a free trial.  You can easily signup for a free ReQtest trial today!