Avoiding the Top Five Traps of
Technical Project Management

By Bob McGannon, PMP

Managing technology projects can be one of the most challenging arenas of project management. Ironically, it is rarely the technology itself that presents obstacles for the technical project manager. Being mindful of the most common traps that await the unsuspecting project manager can help ensure your technical projects don’t end up as financial disasters that don’t deliver expected function, and diminish the reputation of yourself and your technical organization.

1. It is about business process, not the technical tool

The intent of a project is to move the business to a better place. That better place can mean increased efficiency, additional capabilities or an improvement in the accuracy of the business’ output. Regardless of the nature of the business improvement, it is enhanced process that will drive the superior results. It is not necessarily as a result of a tool, a new IT system or improved technology – these are only the catalyst for the improved process which drives business results. Many project managers and their teams mistake the new technology as being the output of the project, rather than the enhanced process that results in conjunction with implementing new technology.

When the technical project manager keeps the new business process as the primary deliverable of the project many common problems are avoided. Divergence between the business processes the project customer wants or intends to execute, and the business process that is forced by a new tool or technology can lead to diminished project results. Those less than ideal results can include partial product implementation that does not fulfill all of its promise or in extreme cases a total scrapping of the project. Either way, the lasting result is a perception that the project manager and the team are out of touch and the team is more interested in playing with technology than moving the business forward in a meaningful way.

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