Seven ways to fail while managing your Projects:

Here are seven ways to fail when managing your projects….
#1 – Fail to address issues immediately
Two members of your project team can’t stand each other and cooperation is vital to the success of the project. As project manager, you must address the issue head on. Either find a way that they can work together professionally, if not amicably, or modify roles and assignments. Whatever you do, don’t let the issue linger. It will only come back to haunt you further along.
#2 – Reschedule too often
As the project develops, you can certainly change due dates, assignments, and schedules. Recognize though, that there is a cost every time you make a change, and if you ask your troops to keep up with too many changes you are inviting mistakes, missed deadlines, confusion, and possibly hidden resentment.
#3 – Be content with reaching milestones on time, but ignore quality
Too often, project managers in the heat of battle, are focused on completing the project on time and within budget, and aren’t sufficiently focused on the quality of work done.
A series of milestones that you reach with less than desired quality work adds up to a project that misses the mark. And customer satisfaction – a key success factor – will take a huge hit in the process.
#4 – Too much focus on project administration and not enough on project management
In this high tech era with all manner of sophisticated project management software, it is too easy to fall in love with project administration—making sure that equipment arrives, money is allocated, and assignments are doled out to the neglect of project management, taking in the big picture of what the team is up against, where they are heading, and what they are trying to accomplish.
#5 – Micromanage rather than manage
This is reflected in the project manager who plays his cards close to his chest, and retains most of the tasks himself, or at least the ones he deems to be crucial, rather than delegating. The fact that you have staff implies that there are many tasks and responsibilities that you should not be handling. On the other hand, if you should decide to handle it all, be prepared to stay every night until 10:30, give up your weekends, and generally be in need of a life.
Micromanaging isn’t pretty. The most able managers know when to share responsibilities with others and to keep focused on the big picture.
#6 – Adapt new tools too readily
If you are managing a project for the first time and counting on a tool that you have not used before, you are incurring a double risk. Here’s how it works. Managing a project for the first time is a single risk. Using a project tool for the first time is a single risk. Both levels of risk are acceptable. You can be a first-time project manager using tools that you are familiar with, or you can be a veteran project manager using tools for the first time.
However, it is unacceptable to be a first-time project manager using project tools for the first time.
#7 – Monitor project progress intermittently
Just as a ship that is off course one degree at the start of a voyage ends up missing the destination by a thousand miles, so too a slight deviation in course in the early rounds of your project can result in having to do double or triple time to get back on track. Hence, monitoring progress is a project-long responsibility. It is important at the outset for the reasons just mentioned, and it is important in mid and late stages to avoid last-minute surprises.