3 mistakes that will crush your IT project

1. Defining your expectations wrong

2. Not understanding the needs of your end user

3. Not Defining your risks

Not defining your expectations

All too often, we hear of projects that are announced to the public before they have been fully defined. This can cause serious damage to your project, as you will need to deal with an enormous amount of feedback on the direction you are going in. This can divert energy from the actual project and can often lead to a project being cancelled.

Not understanding the needs of your end user

Before you start a project, it is crucial that you get an understanding of what your end-user wants. You can do this by holding an initial meeting with them and asking them questions.

It will be about their needs and how they would like to see the project conducted. Hold regular meetings with them throughout the project so that you can get their feedback on how the project is going.

Not understanding the risks

When you are beginning a project. It is crucial that you are able to identify and understand all the risks involved with it. A risk is something that could happen but may not affect your end result, but if it does have an impact, it will have a great impact on your result. For example: not having enough time to complete a project due to other commitments could be a risk of the project, but it is unlikely to have a big impact. Yet, not having enough time due to lack of prior research may have a much bigger impact on your end result.

If you can identify risks early on and plan for them, you will be able to avoid a lot of problems arising further down the line. It is vital that you understand your risks as well as possible. This can be done through a risk assessment.

How to do a risk assessment

A.

Write down all the risks that you can think of for your project. This list should be as exhaustive as possible. It is also important that you are realistic about the risks involved, as this will make your project more reliable if you do identify them.

B.

Now decide how likely each of these risks is to happen. Some risks are likely to happen, some may be unlikely to happen, and some may be impossible to happen. It is vital that you understand how likely each risk is to happen. This will help you decide which risks are the most important and which ones are not so important. For example: You may think that there is a risk that your project won’t deliver on time.

But this may not be very likely to happen if you have put a lot of time into the planning process. Yet, it may be a risk that your team won’t have the ability to deliver the project. It’s likely to happen if you don’t have trained people on your team to make sure that each task in the project can be completed.

C.

Now rank each risk likelihood and impact on the project. The risk with the highest likelihood and highest impact should be your highest priority.  On first to reduce the likelihood of it happening and reduce the impact if it does happen.

With the highest likelihood and lowest impact,  should become your low priority.

Worked on last as it’s not likely to have much of an impact anyway if it does happen.

The risk with the highest impact but lowest likelihood should be dealt with before the risk with the highest likelihood.  But, lowest impact, as this will cut the chance of this happening but will still have a big impact if it does happen.

The risk with the lowest likelihood and lowest impact should not be worked on at all. It is unlikely to have any impact on your project result anyway even if it does happen. These three steps will help you determine which risks are most important and which ones are not so important for your project.

It will help you decide what issues should be worked on first in to get your project completed successfully. Find what issues need to be worked on last.

This is one of the most important things that you must do when starting a new project. As identifying risks early on in the process means that you can work on them.

Before they occur so that they do not impact your end result and so that they don’t affect whether your project is completed successfully.

Conclusion

If you can identify risks early on and plan for them, you will be able to avoid a lot of problems arising further down the line. It is vital that you understand your risks as well as possible. This can be done through a risk assessment.