Andy
Problems can occur at any stage of the project but they may appear more worrying near the beginning. There are a wide range of relatively straightforward processes, tools, etc available to new project managers and teams (I describe these in my Better Projects blog and there are of course all the JISC infoNet resources) and some of these such as risk register tracking, a communication strategy and stakeholder involvement will ensure that problems are identified quickly. The Project Manager has to constantly monitor things between review meetings, milestones, etc. Teambuilding and relationship building are very hard to do well (and I've attended some poor training on this myself) but good team communication and attitude will again mean that problems are aired (and acted on) at an early stage. All the control measures mentioned above may seem rather onerous in the early stages of a project when people want to get on with things.
Paul Mayes
