Your project plans need to be detailed for the near term so that everyone knows:
- What they are working on,
- What their accountability is for the deliverables and quality and
- How this fits into the greater objective.
The only thing that is certain about a long-term detailed plan is that it will be wrong. PMs can learn a lot from military strategy—a General doesn’t plan a battle in detail but depends on soldiers knowing their objectives, so they can react to events and seize opportunities.
“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”—General George S. Patton
This was my contribution to Lessons Learned in Project Management: 140 Tips in 140 Words or Less
A compilation of project management advice put together by John Estrella – which is available from Amazon – Kindle edition only in the UK
