Risk management is a great tool to spot potential problems

The type of problems Now I am talking about is often seen in projects where new technology is released or where the availability of a brand new service will depend on the introduction of new-technology. It's the sort of problem where an obstacle presents itself and progress on the complete project is affected. Various times the barrier poises a core feature the sponsor is eager to see.
So what can we as project professionals do to deal with these very 'hard to resolve' problems that inevitably arise?

There are several ways to deal with problems that arise over the course of task management. Every problem has its own attributes and requires it is own approach to dealing with. But there are some generic actions you can take. These center throughout the notion that projects demand a team-based approach to problem solving and a job manager can facilitate team performance.

The above all account is that the team solving the challenge needs to be a 'team'. This kind of means there has to have been something different they've done together previous to addressing the 'big' problem. I tend to look for things to nurture teamwork prior to taking on more difficult issues.

We're all aware of the conventional phases of the team including creating, storming, norming and carrying out. We know the task team will drift out and in of these stages, depending on dynamics of the environment and situation. If team members have an antecedent on what to do to fix smaller matters, then alignment of the team to give attention to the more serious issue will be easier and faster.

Essentially we want to ensure team dynamics will not delay starting the problem-solving process. We do this by facilitating they through as many 'cycles of learning' together as possible, early in the task. Here the cycles of learning apply to how members settle into their roles, share information and relate to the other person in a synergistic manner. In the event they've experienced it before revisiting it again another issue is easier and hopefully progressive.

Another active approach is to reduce the chance of specialized issues through risk evaluation and assessment. Unproven technology and integration issues can be difficult to reveal as part of the risk management process. Yet , the development methodology (i. e. agile, waterfall, prototypying, etc) selected for the project can help. To get example, prototyping specific aspects of the technology or its integration provides very illuminating results early in a project life pattern. Often these foreshadow where development 'challenges' can be expected. Schedules and costs can be adjusted much earlier.

In closing, while good risk management is a great tool to spot potential problems, building a team ready and able to solve problems quickly and effectively is essential to manage the uncertainty of scheduling solutions to problems.