“We’re under such time & cost pressures that we just need to act and have no time to plan.”
Have you ever heard this before? Has downsizing or frozen growth plans left your project teams small and very experienced?
Well, even when projects are relatively small and teams are composed of highly-experienced subject-matter experts – projects without a plan that is established upon commencement and maintained through to completion tend to yield unsatisfactory outcomes in one or more key aspects. Most notably these aspects include cost, timing and ability to meet stakeholder expectations.
The key to correct planning lies in a combination of two factors, namely:
(a) getting to know enough about the stakeholder expectations to be confident in the ability to meet them and manage them over time; and
(b) putting enough thought into tasks, dependencies, resources and logistics to be confident that the plan is doable, and will result in meeting the project’s success criteria.
The level of detail required within the plan differs depending on the specific context. If it is kept to the minimum necessary to meet (a) and (b) above, it will reduce the level of resource required to complete the project successfully. Defining what this minimum should be for a particular company is paramount to the successful transformation of project management practices as part of a pragmatic vision. When done right, a little more work and a little added time upfront is very likely to result both in lower project costs and in higher customer satisfaction!
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