How too much Detailed Planning often Kills Project Success
Throughout our consulting assignments on Large, Complex Projects in execution phase we’ve encountered too often an astonishing phenomenon: excessively detailed planning, impeding proper update, control and decision-making in the project. In the White Paper: How too much Detailed Planning often Kills Project Success (Why the Budgeting Plan Cannot be Used for Project Execution) [2012-28], we investigate the causes of this phenomenon, why it is so much of a concern and how to overcome this issue.
Beyond the initial input into resourcing and budgeting, the project plan during project execution ultimately serves to take decisions. To achieve this, it needs to:
- represent effectively, at any time, the execution plan of the project, taking into account any decision regarding changes of plans, new or changed activities or logic,
- and be rigorously updated as to the actual progress of the project tasks.
The scope of work to be done during each reporting period needs thus to be commensurate with the resources available to carry them out. We believe that a maximum of 1,000-2,000 activities for the integrated project schedule is often a maximum even for large projects (this does not preclude to have more detailed schedules for particular departments and activities).
The main issue is often that the very detailed plan done before the start of the execution of the project to cover resourcing and budgeting is not the plan that the project needs for execution. At the beginning of project execution you need to take the time to re-develop your schedule to make it fit for future monitoring and decision-making.
Excessive simplification is the enemy of success. So is excessive complication. Strike the right balance. It is something of an art. Take the time to get the right balance at the beginning of project execution. It is necessary for the success of your project.
Read the White Paper: How too much Detailed Planning often Kills Project Success (Why the Budgeting Plan Cannot be Used for Project Execution) [2012-28], to understand more about this issue which pervades many project organizations.
The Urgency of Project Startup: How to Ensure Success of your Project by Creating the Space to Lead
The startup phase of project execution is critical for the success of the project. Not just because it is the moment where the project team has the most influence on the outcome and where small investments will yield the best returns. It is also because a sound setup will later give space to the team to concentrate on the inevitable issues arising during project execution and lead the project through them – which is invaluable. Yet we find that too many projects fail to show enough urgency at this stage. In our new White Paper “The Urgency of Project Startup: How to Ensure Success of your Project by Creating the Space to Lead” [2012-23] we investigate how to increase the project success by concentrating on the startup phase.
Are you ready for the project startup sprint?
Project startup needs to be addressed with the appropriate urgency. It is important to achieve as quickly as possible a stable situation where all the important foundations of project execution are effectively in place. Actually, the aim of project startup is not just to plan the project. It is to create robustness to change.
Instead of focusing on the level of detail of the execution plan, it is more effective to concentrate on building an execution plan that is as resilient as possible to changes and natural variation.
One very important aspect of project startup is to setup the appropriate systems and processes that will allow to have an accurate view of the project situation and current course at all times. And these systems need to be designed to free the project team leaders as much as possible from running them so that they can concentrate on acting on the course of the project.
Throughout our extensive consulting experience in projects, we have found that most project teams fail significantly short of being successful in the project startup phase. And it is no surprise when later the overall project falls short of expectations!
The two main syndromes we observe are:
Don’t fall into the trap: project startup is a critical moment. As a project leader, you need to setup a project configuration as quickly as possible that will free you from the mundane and repetitive tasks and allow you to steer your project through the unexpected.
Read our new White Paper “The Urgency of Project Startup: How to Ensure Success of your Project by Creating the Space to Lead” [2012-23] to know more about how to implement project startup properly.