Project Management Mistakes: 5 Myths That Cause Them

Most project management mistakes start with a belief about project management itself. Some people think it is only for large, formal projects. Others think planning wastes time, or that working on more things at once gets more done. This article covers five of those project management myths, the mistakes each one causes, and what to do instead. The evidence comes from the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Kanban Guide.

What causes project management mistakes: the PMI data

PMI’s 2018 Pulse of the Profession survey asked project professionals about the projects their organizations completed in the previous 12 months. It reported these results:

• 9.9% of every dollar invested in projects was wasted due to poor project performance, or $99 million per $1 billion.
• 52% of projects experienced scope creep, up from 43% five years earlier.
• Among failed projects, the most cited primary causes were a change in the organization’s priorities (39%), a change in project objectives (37%) and inaccurate requirements gathering (35%).
• An inadequate vision or goal, poor communication, and undefined risks were each cited for 29% of failures.
• Inadequate sponsor support was cited for 26% of failures.

Three years later, PMI’s 2021 report put the waste from missed deadlines, overshot budgets and scope creep at 9.4%. Most of the causes above concern goals, ownership and communication rather than technical work. The five myths below lead to several of them.

Myth 1: Project management is only for big projects

A project is any piece of work with a goal and an end, such as a website redesign, a product launch or an office move. Formal project management methods exist for large efforts with large budgets. Small projects still have a goal and steps, and they fail for the same reasons.

The mistake it causes: starting without a written goal or scope. Nobody writes down what “done” means, so every new idea looks like part of the project. That is how scope creep starts, and it matches three of the top causes in PMI’s list: changing objectives, inaccurate requirements and an unclear goal.

What to do instead: Before work starts, write three things:

• the outcome in one sentence,
• two or three checks that tell you the outcome is reached,
• what is out of scope for this project.

When someone asks for more, compare the request with the scope. Then either add it with more time, or put it on a list for the next project.

Myth 2: You need a certified project manager

Certifications teach a shared vocabulary for coordinating large teams and budgets. Most small projects need something simpler: one person who keeps track of the work and says when something is stuck.

The mistake it causes: nobody owns the project. Everyone assumes someone else is watching the deadline, and problems surface late. PMI’s 2018 report shows the value of ownership at the senior level. Organizations where more than 80% of projects had actively engaged executive sponsors reported 40% more successful projects than organizations where fewer than half did.

What to do instead: Name one owner for each project, even if it is the only person working on it. In a small team, the owner is the person who:

• keeps the list of tasks current,
• checks each week what is blocked,
• makes the call when a new request changes the scope.

For a larger project, also name the person who decides between competing priorities, such as a client contact or a manager.

Myth 3: Planning wastes time you could spend working

Planning produces nothing you can show, so it feels like a delay. The cost of skipping it shows up later as rework, missed steps and conversations that start with “I thought you were handling that.”

The mistake it causes: unrealistic estimates and undefined risks. PMI’s 2018 failure list includes inaccurate cost estimates (28%), inaccurate task time estimates (25%), and opportunities and risks that were not defined (29%). These are the gaps that a short planning step fills.

What to do instead: Plan in proportion to the work. A one-day task needs ten minutes, and a month-long project may need an afternoon. A useful plan answers four questions:

• What are the steps, in order?
• What does each step depend on?
• What could block you, and what will you do if it does?
• When is it due, and is that date realistic given past projects?

Our guide to project planning steps covers the planning process in detail, and task breakdown covers how to split the work into tasks.

Myth 4: The right software will fix it

Many teams respond to a messy project by buying a new tool. The tool then gets set up with dozens of fields, statuses and automations before anyone agrees on how the team works.

The mistake it causes: a tool that nobody updates. If the team has not agreed on what each stage means or who moves cards, the board falls out of date within weeks. Poor communication, cited for 29% of failed projects in PMI’s survey, is not something a tool can fix by itself.

What to do instead: Agree on the process first, then pick the simplest tool that supports it. For many small teams, a shared list or a basic kanban board is enough. Write down three rules before you set up any software:

• what each stage on the board means,
• who moves a task from one stage to the next,
• when the team reviews the board together.

Myth 5: Starting more work gets more done

When a deadline is close, the instinct is to start everything at once. More tasks in progress looks like more progress.

The mistake it causes: too much work in progress. Each person switches between tasks, every task waits longer, and little reaches Done. Queuing theory gives the reason. Little’s Law was proved by John Little in 1961. It states that the average number of items in a system equals their arrival rate times the average time each item spends in it. If your team finishes the same number of tasks per week, doubling the tasks in progress doubles the average time each task takes to finish.

What to do instead: Set a limit on how many tasks can be in progress at once. The Kanban Guide says that members of a kanban system “must explicitly control the number of work items in a workflow from started to finished.” Finish or unblock something before you start something new. Our article on why kanban works explains the method in more detail.

Early warning signs

These signs show that one of the mistakes above has already started:

• A task has no owner, or two people each think the other has it.
• New requests are added to the project, but the due date stays the same.
• Cards sit in the working stage for weeks with no change.
• Each person has more than two or three tasks in progress.
• The weekly review is skipped twice in a row.

When you see one, go back to the myth it belongs to and apply the fix.

Project management principles that prevent these mistakes

Each myth above leads to a gap in one of these principles. Use them as a checklist for any project, large or small:

1. Agree on the outcome first. Write the goal, the checks for “done” and what is out of scope.
2. Give the project one owner. One person tracks the work and decides on scope changes.
3. Plan in proportion to the work. List the steps, dependencies, risks and a realistic date.
4. Make the work visible. Everyone can see each task’s status without asking.
5. Limit work in progress. Finish tasks before starting new ones.
6. Review and adjust. Check progress on a fixed schedule, and update the plan when something changes.

Project management tips for a small team board

The principles above fit on a simple kanban board. KanbanWP is a free WordPress plugin for this. Its Blank template creates a board with three stages: To Do, Doing and Done. To apply the best practices from this article on that board:

• Write the outcome in the task description, and put the checks for “done” in the task’s checklist.
• Assign every task to one person, so each card has an owner.
• Record blockers in the task’s “Blocked by” list, as described in subtasks and dependencies. The card then shows a count of its blockers.
• Watch the count beside Doing. Each stage header shows how many tasks it holds. With a WIP limit set, the count turns into a warning when the stage goes over the limit, but KanbanWP does not block the move. You set a default limit for new boards in the settings, or a limit for one stage through the REST API, the plugin’s developer interface.
• Review the board once a week. Move finished work to Done, check blocked cards and decide what starts next.

The guide to your first board walks through creating a board and adding tasks. If your team runs several projects at once, see kanban for project management.