Back to basics - Failing to plan is planning to fail
David AUGY
Head of Program Management | Project Portfolio Manager | Business Transformation Leader | PMO
A former colleague of mine used to say that “the good thing about NOT planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise… rather than being preceded by a period of stress”… and he was right!
However, is it what we should aim for? ??
Human beings don’t like to plan, they prefer to just “do stuff”, but any decent project manager will tell you that spending a bit of time to think ahead is definitively one of the keys to project success.
However, even the best possible plan will most likely not fully materialize as foreseen on day 1… quite the opposite actually. It wouldn’t really be a project otherwise, right?
Indeed a plan is not meant to be 100% accurate, but rather to serve as a lighthouse in the dark and provide direction.
And it’s OK to deviate from the original plan… as long as you have the means to see you're deviating (your baseline plan), and that you’re taking action to course correct accordingly.
Therefore, in a nutshell, a plan is nothing… but planning is everything!
Anybody has a different opinion?
IT Head of Brokerage, Fee & Billing; DCS Reconciliation HSBC Technology India
1 年Plans should be short term and achievable and always to be Seen as a means, it should not be mandate. How Many times we have seen waste of efforts just to make a plan success.
IT Director | Programme Director | CIO - helping organisations deliver business transformations
1 年Totally agree! As the other well known saying goes.. "Plan the work and then work the plan" Hope life is treating you well David!
Head of PMO at TPG Public Transport of Geneva
1 年I totally agree and would add: Fail to manage people and people will manage you. Fail to manage risks and problems will lead your project. Fail to set controls and everything will go loose. Fail to communicate and you may find having nothing in common with stakeholders. At the end of the day it is to go according to the culture, the maturity, the pace and the context instead of going by the book. And one last thing, but that could be quite controversial ; unless there would be impact on the health of people if deadlines are not respected, it is not worth killing yourself and others to absolutely try to respect it ?? Thanks for the emphasis on this basic principle as in enterprise we tend sometimes to forget about it or denigrate it. ????