Plan. But Don’t Overdo it.
This is part 11 of a 14 part series describing my professional philosophy. Part 10 can be found here.
Raise your hand if you’ve been on a project that was properly executed, completed as scheduled, and experienced no problems.
Anyone, go ahead, raise your hand.
No one? It’s not surprising. I doubt that anyone alive could raise their hand.
But if projects never follow the plan as defined — why bother with a plan at all?
Great question.
This brings us to number 10 of my 12-point tenets for success:
“No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Battle Management Mantra.
So why bother planning at all?
It’s a valid inquiry and one that I assume led to the Agile Software Development Manifesto value of “Responding to change over following a plan.” Agile Manifesto. And I totally agree that being responsive to change SHOULD be valued over following a plan.
Plans can change. Factors can change which affect the plan’s desired outcome. Project requirements can force the plan’s irrelevance. There are INFINITE reasons to list why a plan would no longer be valid to follow strictly.
Again, why do we even bother to plan then?
Here’s one more of my favorite quotes:
Failing to Plan Equals Planning to Fail!
If you begin a new project — it doesn’t matter what the desired outcome of the project is: product, service, software, construction — without a defined plan, you will run into trouble and any success you experience is IN SPITE OF not planning.
Planning for all projects is extremely important. It not only helps stakeholders to understand the constraints, risks, and desired outcomes of a project — but it helps for the times when the project takes a new direction.
When that new direction occurs, and if you don’t have a plan — then you would probably never see the new direction coming and it will create fear, confusion, and stress for your project.
But when you have a project plan — you have the vision to help see the new direction coming and be prepared for it.
A good project plan is good risk management and simply, better hygiene. A plan doesn’t need to be a super-detailed document, it only needs to list the desired outcomes, highlights of how to get there, and what some fallback actions are if problems occur (risks/issues). Most details aren’t realized until the problem presents itself, so it may not be worth the effort to spend valuable time on it too soon. However, in my experience, that detailed planning is just plain old forecasting — a whole lot of ‘what if’ scenarios that have prescribed actions associated with them. That additional planning action may be the difference between project failure from a problem or project success because the team was prepared for the problem due to good leadership.
On the flip side, following a project plan rigorously without any alterations is pure foolish. Don’t spend time and money on any activities that you can’t guarantee will provide value to the desired outcome. Have a plan but be flexible with it.
The enemy will always be there to try and thwart your plans. Plan for it. Plan well. But don’t overdo it.
My other favorite planning quotes:
“Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Mike Tyson
“Humans plan. God laughs.” Unknown.