Concepts
One of the key role of a project manager in a project is to prioritize and manage critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team. This skill is considered important for those preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam.
Understanding Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers
Impediments, obstacles, and blockers refer to any factor that prevents the team from achieving their project goals. These could be technical issues, resource deficiencies, conflicting priorities, organizational inertia or even miscommunication within the team.
The seriousness of these issues determines their classification:
- Impediments: These are typically minor issues that slow down project progress but don’t necessarily bring it to a halt. They’re still important to address to improve efficiency.
- Obstacles: Obstacles are significant issues that inhibit progress. They typically require intervention at a higher level than impediments.
- Blockers: These are critical issues that stop project progress completely. They necessitate immediate action for resolution.
Prioritizing Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers
Prioritizing these issues is vital for effective project management and can be approached in several ways.
1. Impact-Based Prioritization:
The first approach is to gauge the potential impact on the project. High impact issues that might derail the project are given top priority. These could be blockers like lack of critical resources or risky dependencies. Meanwhile, low impact issues like minor bug fixes or advisory requirements can be addressed later.
2. Time-Based Prioritization:
This method considers the time sensitivity of each issue. Blockers that need immediate resolution to avoid any impact on project deadlines are highlighted, while less imminent issues may be lower in priority.
3. Resource-Based Prioritization:
This model looks at the resources needed to resolve each issue. High resource issues which require significant time, effort and money from the team would be prioritized depending on their criticality.
A Step-by-Step Guide for Prioritization
- Identify: The first step is to gather all the risks, issues, and concerns that are or could become impediments, obstacles, or blockers.
- Analyse: Analyze the potential impact, time sensitivity, and resource requirements of each issue.
- Prioritize: Rank the issues based on their analyses. Generally, high impact, immediate, and high resource issues would rank higher.
- Plan: Develop a response plan detailing how each issue will be addressed. Include who will be responsible, what actions they will take, and by when.
- Communicate: Communicate the prioritized list and the response plans to the relevant parties.
- Review: Regularly review and update the list as issues change or new ones emerge.
Example:
Suppose a team is responsible for developing a new software system.
- An example of an impediment could be minor bugs found in the coding which slow down the progress but do not completely hinder it.
- An obstacle could be a sudden change in client specifications, causing rewriting and retesting parts of the code.
- A blocker might be the failure of a key hardware component required for software testing.
Following the step-by-step guide, the project manager would start by identifying these three issues. They would then analyze the potential impact on the project, time sensitivity, and the resources required to fix each issue. Finally, these issues would be prioritized, a response plan developed and communicated, and the solutions would be regularly reviewed and adapted if necessary.
In essence, effective prioritization of impediments, obstacles, and blockers is vital for project success. The Project Management Professional (PMP) examination assesses these skills, making proper understanding and application critical for aspirants.
Answer the Questions in Comment Section
True or False: Prioritizing critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers is not important in project management.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Prioritizing impediments, obstacles, and blockers is crucial for effective project management. It ensures timely and efficient resolution of issues, thus keeping the project on track.
What is the primary objective of prioritizing critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the project team?
- a) To keep the team busy
- b) To use project resources efficiently
- c) To ensure the project team is aware of them
- d) To ensure that no issues remain unresolved
Answer: b
Explanation: Prioritizing obstacles allows the team to focus on the most critical issues that can significantly use resources and affect the project’s progress, thereby maximizing efficiency.
True or False: Prioritization of obstacles should be done according to the date they arose.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Prioritization should be based off the impact the obstacle can have on the project, not the order they came up in.
Which of these should be considered while prioritizing project obstructions?
- a) Team resources
- b) Severity of the impediment
- c) Project deadline
- d) All of the above
Answer: d
Explanation: All of these factors – resources, severity of the impediment and the project deadline – should be considered while prioritizing project obstructions.
True or False: Once prioritized, the sequence of addressing impediments should not be revisited.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: As the project progresses, new issues may arise or circumstances may change, thereby necessitating a revisiting of priorities.
When is the best time to prioritize impediments in project management?
- a) Before the project begins
- b) At the beginning of every phase
- c) As and when they arise
- d) At the end
Answer: c
Explanation: Prioritizing the impediments should be an ongoing effort throughout the course of the project.
True or False: The prioritization of impediments should always be relayed to the entire project team.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: This ensures everyone in the team is aligned with the problem-solving strategies and components which demand immediate attention.
Which of the following is a common method for prioritizing project obstacles?
- a) Alphabetical order
- b) In the order of team preference
- c) By process groups
- d) Based on their impact and time sensitivity
Answer: d
Explanation: Obstacles are usually prioritized based on their potential impact on the project and how time-sensitive they are.
True or False: Time sensitivity is an important criterion in prioritizing project obstacles.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Time sensitivity is a key determinant in prioritizing obstacles as delays can severely impact project deliverables.
Who should be involved in prioritizing project impediments?
- a) Only the project manager
- b) Only the client
- c) The whole project team
- d) The stakeholders
Answer: c
Explanation: The whole project team should be involved in the process to provide different perspectives and expert inputs.
Critical impediments in projects should always be resolved in which order?
- a) Lowest cost first
- b) Highest cost first
- c) Most impact first
- d) Least impact first
Answer: c
Explanation: Critical impediments with the most impact should be addressed first to prevent major setbacks for the project.
True or False: Re-evaluating the prioritization of blockers can be a waste of time.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Circumstances in a project can change and new information can come to light. Re-evaluating the priorities can ensure the most urgent and impactful issues are being addressed first.
Prioritizing critical impediments is crucial for the team to stay on track and meet deadlines.
Thanks for the insightful blog post!
In my experience, daily stand-ups are effective in identifying obstacles early.
I’ve found that a risk matrix is useful in prioritizing impediments.
Appreciate the detailed write-up!
Root cause analysis should be a regular practice for the team.
Excellent blog post, very helpful!
How do you handle impediments that stem from client dependencies?