How to Address These 10 Remote Project Management Challenges

Remote working has been a growing working arrangement around the world. What started as a safety measure because of the pandemic has rapidly evolved into the new norm of how businesses work nowadays.

While most industries can comfortably migrate their operations to remote work, others may have a harder time adjusting. One of the processes in the latter includes project management. 

With multiple things happening all at once so often, it’s important to recognize the challenges you might face so you can find ways to overcome them. Whether onsite or remote, project management has many moving parts that make it more complicated to handle. These include timelines, project scope, and budget. 

10 Remote Project Management Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Remote project management can go wrong in more ways than one throughout its run. While some may result from external factors like client requests, others are brought about by poor planning.

These challenges are often divided into three categories: people, processes, and communication. Below are some examples of remote teams’ common project management challenges. 

1. Undefined goals and objectives

If goals are unclear, the whole project can suffer due to a lack of direction. If you’re the project head, you can remedy this by providing management with a business case. Here, you can list your roadmaps, goals, and the benefits the company can receive after finishing the project. 

2. Scope creep

Scope creep means having a project’s scope exceed its original objective because of changes requested by clients or supervisors. Project managers can mitigate this by regularly engaging with clients on what their expectations are.

Additionally, heads can enlist the help of their assistants and other reliable team members to help keep the project on track and within budget and scope. 

3. Poor team communication

Project management involves a lot of people doing different tasks simultaneously. For a function heavily reliant on collaboration, failure to effectively communicate statuses on your assignments can cause a setback in the project. 

In a post-pandemic work environment, having project management productivity tools for remote teams can ensure all lines of communication are always open and easily accessible. 

4. Budget restrictions

Projects need the necessary budget and resources to move forward and succeed. Project managers can request budget approval during the business plan stage to prevent restrictions. Your team should also research what’s needed and set resources aside in case of emergencies.

5. Inadequate risk management

If you’re a project head, one of your jobs is to ensure the project is running on foolproof processes and your team can handle things should something unexpected happen. 

Having project management platforms or more people to help with the project, like an outsourced virtual assistant, can help project managers identify any unforeseeable threats and mitigate risks immediately when they occur. 

6. Mismatched skill level

Project management relies on skillful employees to do a job effectively. Weaknesses relating to an employee’s work capacity can jeopardize the project’s timeline.

As a manager, you can alleviate this issue by determining the skills your team could develop throughout the project and hiring the right people for the role accordingly. 

7. Lack of accountability

Project heads can clarify roles and deliverables for everyone involved. When everyone knows their tasks, it helps the overall process as they realize the completion of tasks relies on the entire project’s progress.

This effort mitigates any lack of accountability since these responsibilities have been delegated to specific point persons. 

8. Unrealistic deadlines

Instead of solely deciding on team deadlines, project managers must reach out to their members and have them participate in setting the time frames.

Since each person has their own responsibilities, everyone should know how much time they need to complete a task. Confirming with team members if they can meet target dates helps set client expectations and report any difficulties to be wary of as the project progresses.

9. Poor contingency plans

Sometimes unexpected events take place, which can negatively impact the timeline of your project. You and your group can work together to brainstorm different contingencies at the beginning of the project, so you can identify the necessary solutions to address them should they arise. 

10. Limited engagement with clients

Having little to no interaction with clients results in a project without direction. Inviting the client and other relevant people can encourage them to become more involved in the development process. Other methods of engaging with them include providing regular updates and asking for any feedback after forwarding reports.

Manage Projects Like a Pro

The remote work arrangement is here to stay. As such, it’s important to understand what that means for project management operations. Knowing the possible challenges and adjusting accordingly can help you and your team easily overcome any hurdle.

While good planning is key for these types of work, working with skilled professionals and reliable team members can also improve your project management team. These include project management virtual assistants geared toward streamlining processes and helping your team succeed. 

For businesses keen on adding a seasoned virtual assistant to their team to handle parts of their projects, Outsource Access should be your top choice! With top-notch virtual assistant services, high-quality work is guaranteed.