In watching the Inauguration today, I was so very proud and excited at seeing such an amazing historical event. Later, I was reminded at the enormity of all the planning necessary to be able to successfully accomplish this undertaking.
All projects need to consider the planning stage as important as the actual execution phase. This is certainly true for development projects. Many times, it is easy to receive an initial set of requirements and begin developing – the idea being that to get a head start on the project will save time later if issues arise. However, the opposite is often the case as more pieces of the requirements puzzle come to light and additional user needs are discovered that are more complex than originally anticipated.
Why then, is planning so undervalued? Perhaps because customers do not appreciate being charged for evaluations, surveys, feasibility studies, or other pre-development assessment activities. Instead, they’d rather see their investment in action and have a new system underway as quickly as possible. But, if we are to provide them with a truly valuable service, we need to ensure that we take as much into consideration as possible – the unplanned variables of any project are sure to occur, but these can be minimized if we outline important items including not only the scope, but also a project management plan that includes an overview of the proposed timeline, deliverables, staff, risks, and a strategy to be used to communicate throughout the project.
The saying “failing to plan is planning to fail” certainly applies to managing projects. The time invested to planning is wisely spent and will pay off greatly as the project unfolds. Devoting the energy of the project team (and stakeholders) to planning brings about more questions, but having those answered early makes for a much clearer picture of what the project is to look like, hopefully more like a well-orchestrated event as the historical one seen today.
