This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Fix the Plan -- Jeffrey Phillips writes about pressures to stick to the plan when it's clear the reality has failed to do so.
"To leave the confines of an existing plan, we will probably be changing the scope, timeframes, deliverables or other aspects of the plan. That means a significant departure from what was agreed on previously...
"...Also, once a plan is re-written, there's a certain whiff of failure attached to the fact that the team did not live up to the plan."
The problem is rooted in the up-front expectations implied by the mere existence of a plan. If presented as the "one true path" to the project's objectives, or if offered as a prescient commitment to not only the objectives but to the way the objectives will be delivered, then yes, deviating from (or even fixing) a plan along the way will be involve a struggle for hearts and minds of the planners and of those who are invested in the plan. (Do I really have to mention Iraq?)
It's better for all to recognize up front the fact that a plan is merely a model of expectations and that, as memorably pointed out by George E. P. Box...
"All models are wrong. Some models are useful."
Take the useful bits and discard the bits that are proven wrong by reality (after learning from them).
More importantly, advise the project's stakeholders upfront that the plan is just that...a plan that is is to the project as a map is to the territory it represents, subject to error and uncertainty, but nevertheless useful as a starting point and subject to change, correction, or even complete abandonment along the way.
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