What is the biggest challenge you have faced on your projects?

Hi Peter - Agree that with 'part-time' resources in a matrix setup, it is a problem. Thanks for your input

Hi Deepesh - thanks for your input. Agree that getting full commitment from members in a matrix setup is a problem.

PMs don't have to get the employees to do the work as they already have the obligation to do it.

NOPE ....Disagree with this . They absolutely sometimes have to cajole and beg and behave with them like children. Because they wave the big "oh I have operational issues" flag.

"This however doesn't meant that a low performing employee can get away with doing a poor job on a project."

They Absolutely CAN .....unless they report to the Project Manager as their Line Manager.


"PMs can be in control of team members only if they come from the same line of work as they do. PMs that don't come from the same line of work as the team members can't understand the difficulties of the work being performed and would be unable to evaluate if the worker is really doing a bad job or not. Such PMs may end up asking the team members to do impossible things just because they don't understand what is possible and what is not."

Disagree again . PM is more of an influencer , servant leader , orchestrator and has to look out for other job responsibilities outside of managing the technical deliverable on the project , like Risks , Stakeholders, Communications , Timelines and Scope . If they have a Good Technical lead in charge of managing the technical deliverable , they don't need to go too much deeper into the specifics as long as they have a high level understanding of the project . PM's don't need to CONTROL team members . They need to CONTROL the delivery of the project and all the tolerances set up by the Sponsor and Business Owners.

Hi Kiron - The management sometimes thinks that PMs are supermen and can produce magical results. In many cases, the PMs are overwhelmed due to lack of resources and because of a failure to be assertive and say 'No' when needed to 'added projects' or workload. Thanks for your input

Hi Daire - So the big hurdle that you face is in Stakeholder management. Thanks for your input

I would say stakeholders and the people that they manage. Its the negative feedback from the people who are not directly involved in the project but who's work practises may change as a result of the implementation of the projects if the objectives of the project are realised. The are people who are somewhat resistant to any change in their work practises.

Hi Khaled - The first 2 problems can happen in other projects too. For distributed teams, a clear communication plan that can bring all members in sync with project goals is a good starting point. Thanks for your inputs

I don't understand why this can be a problem. An employee that is assigned to work on a project must work on that project you don't have to get any commitment from him/her. He/she can't choose not to work on the project. You don't have to ask him/her nicely to do his/her duties for which he/she is already paid.

I understand that it could be a problem if the employee works on more than one project and he does not have time for all of them but management should decide the priorities and if you project is considered lower priority then you have to accept that.

The only issue in my opinion is when the employee is also doing operational work and his manager only appraises him for the operational work. This indeed could be a big problem but this is management's fault. You should raise this as a risk and you are safe. :)