I have had a a few experiences in which completion of projects have been delayed, I was validated a new piece of lab equipment, during the validation process i ran into delays ranging from the acquisition of testing equipment to approvals from R&D with regards to process. My project manager knew the potential in delays because this new equipment offered a higher level of resolution, as a result we had to also update the applicable references then train all operators on the new equipment. In order to address these issues and statuses on the project, my manager has weekly one on one updates in order to address the issues find solutions for the underestimation of project timelines.
Chris

I've experienced this during one of my internships. One half of the team was set to work doing programming for some output data from a technology no one had experience with (RFID chips), and the other half's goal was to get that technology working. Unfortunately about halfway through the project timeline it became apparent that the RFID chips would not be working out to the extent needed so our project manager needed to do a complete turnaround. However, considering that testing the feasibility of this technology was one of the side goals of the project in the first case, it wasn't a complete failure.
I think these specific issues could have been avoided with more research processes done beforehand, but it seems to me these kinds of issues pop up regardless of how much research is done.

For effective management of time, a PM can estimate or take an analyse the team mates whom are involved in the project. He could look into the personal experiences of each one and can make up a plan accordingly. It's ideally not possible to have a well experienced team members in a project. So PM must plan wisely such that he could manage everything. For instance an employee can work faster but not so perfectly. Other one take lot of time but work perfectly. So he could combine both of the in a efficient way such that it becomes a win-win criteria. Thus a PM can solve the problem of time management.

More often than not, certain tasks will take longer than estimated and push the project back. This is sometimes unavoidable as there may be many possible bottle necks and obstacles. These can include external suppliers and internal processes or approvals. This can be combated by building in extra time to the project schedule in these cases. And if they end up not occurring the project becomes ahead of schedule. Though when the delays are much longer and unexpected they may cause overall delays of deliverables and the full project.

Contingency plans should always be in place when on a timeline that a group must have work done by. There is always something that can go wrong and will go wrong. One strategy to ensure that everything goes according to plan is to have constant reports and updates to always know how close or far you are from a goal. This way if the goal is not being reached fast enough, the decision can be made to either push to make it on time or to switch gears. The time expectancy should also be realistic. Adding pressure to deadlines that are already difficult to keep can cause a team to make promises that they cannot uphold.

Organizational skills are an important quality that a project manager must have to be able to be a good one. Properly allocating resources such as time and manpower in order to efficiently complete the project is key. Another important aspect that is important to have a successful project is to create a great schedule. However, there are moments when the set milestones cannot be met that other methods are incorporated into the schedule so that the project can be finished in a timely manner. A good manager must be able to gauge those who work under him and assign work to each member that he/she can manage and finish within the allotted time. Furthermore, when creating the schedule, the manager must account for delays so he must set dates that are far ahead of the actual date the certain portion of the project is required so that troubleshooting and other additional tasks can be performed in case of last minute problems that may arise. Additionally, the project manager must constantly check for updates before the set deadlines to make sure that the deadline can be met. I’ve encountered this problem during my Capstone II semester where delivery problems caused us to move and adjust our schedule. This pushed a lot of the other aspects of the project to be delayed. If we were able to allot time with the delay, we would’ve been able to adjust much easier.

Being a project managers is not easy, it is a position that requires a lot of experience, responsibility and good organization skills. My boss is a project manager with a very broad experience in Electrical Engineering projects. There was this time that we were doing a project for a very important person from the government. Our boss knew that doing the project in an excellent way would make the customer to come back for more. The project involved the installment of multiple electric motors. When the project manager did the schedule for the due dates, he added 3 extra days because he had his reasons. He told me that the type of electric motors we were ordering were very rare and that could possibly cause a delay. The delay happened exactly as the Project manager told me it would, but since he had added 3 more days for the due date we were able to finish the whole project on time. I believe that this kind of things can only come from experience. There is no way somebody could predict that some products will be delayed or not. Hope you get something out of this example.

Sincerely,
Roberto Pineda.

I believe that some of the methods a project manager can utilize would be to install smaller milestones/goals at various parts throughout the project. This would serve to give his/her employees a better understanding of what needs to be done by what date and would serve as an early warning if the project were to start lagging behind schedule. These smaller milestones/goals would best be illustrated and presented to the employees though a Gantt chart or some other visual organizational method of the project manager’s preference. In addition, the project managers past experience would also serve him/her well in this instance so that they would know how much slack time to build into the project.

In my own experience, I had unexpected delays directly affect my ability to complete one of my parts in a project for a pharmaceutical company. I was tasked with validating the best way to separate a drug compound from its precursors when my assigned analytical machine (HPLC) broke. It was about 4 days until the repair company was able to schedule an appointment, arrive, and fix the issue. Luckily, my project manager knew from experience that HPLC’s are prone to breaking down due to the high pressures and delicate instrumentation utilized and he allotted ample slack time within my project. In the end, I was able to finish my part in the project on time due to the foresight of an experienced PM.

Time estimation is important can be used to organize and structure all projects. Using good time estimation techniques may save time, and money. First, project manager should familiar with the task to be carried out and understand the project outcomes well; this might be one of the reason that team can underestimate the time duration if project manager not knowing the project well enough. Project manager can breaks large tasks down into detailed tasks and well explained to the team members so they know inside out of the project in details. Project manager should ask for progress report from team members at least on weekly bases. Lastly, always prepare for project to go wrong due to expected and unexpected disruptions and delays to work that will inevitably happen. Project manager allows some extra time for any urgency tasks such as missed deliveries by suppliers, quality control rejections, breakdown in equipment, and meetings.

For powerful administration of time, a PM can gauge or take a break down the colleagues who are included in the venture. He could investigate the individual encounters of everyone and can make up an arrangement as needs are. It's in a perfect world impractical to have very much experienced colleagues in a venture. So PM must arrangement carefully with the end goal that he could oversee everything. For example, a worker can work speedier however not all that flawlessly. Other one takes parcel of time yet work superbly. So he could join both of the proficiently with the end goal that it turns into win-win criteria. Accordingly, a PM can tackle the issue of time administration.

During project planning, cost estimation and time estimation for completing a project is the most challenging task for the project manager. There are many of factors that can affect the project manager in making these decisions. Sometimes, it’s the end client who requests a change at the last minute and the supplier must incorporate to make the client or the customer happy. At other times, it’s the project manager lack of abilities to communicate well with the team and the SME (Subject Matter Expert) before finalizing the deadlines. During my experiences, one of the project was set back because the material used for manufacturing wasn’t tested and no record for tensile strength. As a result, this caused the project deadline to push back. From this experience, the project manager learned that interaction with the team twice during a week and taking an advice from SME is a great way to complete a project efficiently and accurately.

to reflect on your experience as I had a similar one, where the project I was working on depended on another sector to hand us some chip that will allow us to obtain a signal for us to analyze. Research was definitely a key to avoid this delay, but as you mentioned it is not always the only way to avoid such problems. However, there should be sufficient balance between analyzing and investigating all the details of a project before implementing it and actually taking this analysis to initial testings and prototyping.

During project planning, consulting with the members of the various teams would help to develop more accurate project timing forecasts. This is something that I experience at my company rather frequently. As projects move into the planning phase, critical members of each of the teams (regulatory, quality, manufacturing/processing, R&D) come together to discuss the nature of their responsibilities. The responsibilities are quantified and discussed between the different managers of each division to ensure that adequate assessments have been made. Time tables are then developed with adequate time for each team to achieve their goals, with many steps running in parallel to optimize the process.

I can relate to this quite a bit. Project estimations are very difficult when third-party vendors are involved. During my capstone project, we purchased a strain gauge that ended up being too small for our application. We didn't know until we tested it, and this was well into development of the project. Testing and validation protocols had to be adjusted, and ultimately we ended up picking a different force sensor. Project estimation on that was definitely underestimated because of issues with third-party equipment. I, too, had anticipated that something like this would happen, so during the development of the project plan, I implemented a contingency plan in case of emergency. Our project is on schedule only because of the contingency plan, but project underestimation is still a significant issue.