1. Be prepared for issues regarding third party components: Suppliers have the potential to ship late, ship faulty components, or even not ship the components to you at all. You have to be prepared for all scenarios

2. Time management: Allocate time towards the most crucial aspects of design. This may seem obvious, but sometimes defining what is crucial is a challenge in it of itself.

3. Communication: Make sure everyone understands what is on the project timeline and be transparent about the goals, missed milestones, and any contingency plans. In order for the project to be successful, everyone must be on the same page.

4. Foresight: Being able to anticipate issues in a project can only come from two avenues; experience or research. A good project manager will have both under his/her belt.

These are the points I would highlight when creating the Gantt chart.