In a recent poll on LinkedIn, we asked project managers, leaders, and business owners the following question: What barriers get in the way of your project delivery?
In this blog, we’ll dive into some of these frequent barriers. Understanding and addressing these obstacles early is key, because if left unchecked they can impact your project significantly, leading to increased costs and late delivery. The areas covered below are scope creep, risk blind spots and information silos.
Pain Point 1: Scope Creep
What is scope creep?
The Association for Project Management defines scope creep as the, "continual extension of the scope of some projects". This means a project expands in an uncontrolled and unapproved manner without adjustments to time, cost or resources. The outcome of scope creep can mean delays to deadlines and pressures on budgets.
How does it come about?
Scope creep can happen informally and quietly, through a project gradually drifting off course. It can often start with loose or ambiguous requirements that leave room for interpretation and result in increased work whilst project time and cost remain fixed.
Example:
You work as a project manager at a drone engineering firm developing a new prototype and often have to juggle competing stakeholder demands. Scope creep could occur when to make the Sales team happy you have been trying to implement different colour options and have taken on Operations request for higher quality materials. This can make a once straightforward pilot project become complex and eventually unachievable.
What can you do?
Scope needs definition but also stewardship. Clear requirements and expectations set the project up for success, while a steady process helps weigh new ideas against their impact. At the same time, curiosity matters. Sometimes a change today can save effort tomorrow. At Pointer, we practice balancing respecting client priorities, exploring the value of new scope, yet keeping projects anchored to what was first agreed.
Pain Point 2: Risk Blind Spots
What are risk blind spots?
Risk blind spots in a project are those areas of potential risk that are overlooked or underestimated – perhaps because of biases, lack of information, limited perspective, or organisational culture. They can also be understood as the "unknown unknowns" that can catch a project team off guard and cause delays, cost overruns, or even project failure.
Example:
A project team is developing a wearable fitness tracker to help users monitor heart rate, activity levels and sleep quality. Minor issues with sensor accuracy and battery life are treated as low priority. Over time, these small problems accumulate, causing inconsistent readings during workouts and daily tracking. By launch, users experience unreliable data, forcing the team to delay rollout and fix critical systems to ensure a positive experience.
This shows how even small, overlooked risks in physical products can snowball into major problems if they aren’t monitored and addressed early.
What can you do?
Managing risk is everyone’s responsibility and simple practices can help catch potential problems before they escalate:
- Bring in different perspectives – Involve people from different teams or roles to spot risks that might otherwise be missed.
- Test for failure – Challenge your plan by imagining “what could go wrong” scenarios to uncover hidden issues.
- Review risks regularly – Don’t treat risk assessment as a one-time task; check and update risks throughout the project.
Pain Point 3: Information Silos
What are information silos?
An information silo happens when knowledge or data gets trapped in one part of a project team or company and isn’t shared with others who need it. This can lead to missed updates, duplicated work, or decisions made without key input.
Example:
A company building a Tech-for-Good app that connects volunteers with local community projects updates the new event sign-up feature. However, the communications and support teams aren’t informed. When the feature launches, support staff can’t guide users, and marketing shares outdated instructions. Time is wasted, and user experience suffers - all because information didn’t flow across teams.
What can you do?
Break down silos with clear project management practices:
- Implement centralised tools – Use shared platforms like Jira, SharePoint, or Slack for tracking and communication.
- Encourage cross-team collaboration – Schedule regular check-ins with representatives from all departments.
- Have clear communication protocols – Decide early what information gets shared, with whom, and when.
Summary
A project experiencing significant barriers to project delivery can place significant strain on your operations. However, taking these tips onboard can help you to an effectively run project that can become a huge asset to your business.
For more information about effective project management, or navigating some of the common challenges which projects typically face, email us: info@pointer-cg.co.uk.
Want to find out more? Visit our project management service page here .
This article has been written by Ben Hughes, Consultant at Pointer.