COVID crisis and the impact it is having are naturally causing a lot of fear, uncertainty and anxiety across the globe. Add social isolation, disrupted work and family routines, cabin fever and economic instability, and it is understandable that our mental health is suffering. COVID - 19 has brought a lot disruption to the life a people let it be personal, social & professional. All the rules, definition, concepts of life & work got tremendously impacted. The balance, relationships, communication, contribution till time has drastically came to the questionable states. We shall specifically focus on impact of COVID on the Project management community.
It really matters as we need to bring the things on track with rock solid resilience plan to keep show on. Portfolio rebalancing shall be the challenge imposed by time. The more prepared you are and more patient you are, better are the chances of recovery.
Let's check what challenges it has brought to Project management especially non IT projects, engineering & infrastructural projects.
Non availability of resources like material, skilled and unskilled manpower. Many of suppliers / contractors has been impacted by infections. So, they could either not support in terms of material or manpower for installation or execution.
The user and internal teams also were infected or their family members it has become really challenges to maintain the momentum.
Even quite few members remotely placed were also could not provide much support in terms of on-site monitoring & control. Although all web based systems were made full fledgedly available in tech savvy business environment but ultimately personal touch was missed in the process. Software, AI ultimately brings innovative processes but it would be great disadvantage if not handled well by experienced person with good logic & judgements.
Since all business pattern remains impacted, there are changes with respect to demand & supply, materials planning & overall supply chain challenges.
Cost escalations of the contracts due to price changes, logistics challenges, manpower unavailability and statutory expenses due to COVID protocol.
Shrinking budgets leave little to no room for error in managing a project.
Even most of proactive top management has brought in many strategic measures to get aligned with changed ecosystem.
In my opinion, these are some of many challenges in the COVID disrupted scenarios. Many has performed really to the level to rebalance across all these challenges to bring back the momentum. There were many catalysts who have fueled overall planning without much deviations in terms of Schedule, Budget & Quality.
The world beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, project management shall remain the key to success for many businesses. Various options like remote working, up skilling and that will minimize residual effects of the pandemic on our industry.
Moving forward, we shall further look into various aspects of Project management with my point of view in a redefined manner.
Do suggest me the topics / comments so that collectively we can have better Project ecosystem.
Rupesh Pimple
Project Management Expert
Good insights on project Management 👍