We’ve all heard it before. “If we know our jobs, and if no plan survives the first contact with the enemy, then why bother planning at all?”
I’ve seen too many projects fail because the people involved didn’t think their project was worthy of planning.

We know that too few teams effectively plan, as we’ve all seen people putting in insane amounts of overtime to make sure that a project comes in on time, and often with dubious results. You wouldn’t expect Commander Adama to go into battle without a plan, would you?

Planning is necessary to define what done looks like, what the necessary components are and how they fit together, and the scope involved. It’s also a necessity in identifying risks and planning their mitigations and contingencies. I’ve heard it said that “failing to plan is planning to fail.” In my opinion, planning is necessary to bring projects to a successful close.

I’ve seen all too often that people don’t want to take time to plan large or small projects, but just want to get right to work.

What happens when you don’t plan?

• Requirements are amorphous and harder to achieve than they need to be. It’s hard to establish what done is going to look like without a plan.
• Scope is ill-defined (or not defined at all), and exactly what is involved is only discovered as you try to move forward. Scope is not evaluated versus the capacity (people x time). When scope exceeds capacity without a plan, a project is usually delivered with poor quality, or a pushed delivery date, or both.
• Interdependencies are all too often overlooked, resulting in task start dates, skill sets, and availability not being optimized. The end result is unnecessary down time while people wait for tasks to be completed by others upstream.
• You leave yourself open to risk. Without a plan, often risks that could have been identified early are overlooked. When the risk situation does actually occur (no doubt at the worst possible moment), proper mitigations and contingencies aren’t in place to cope with it.
• You lack the agility to effectively react to changes such as scope creep. Projects always seem to involve increased scope, and without a plan, you don’t know just how that increased scope will affect your project.

What happens when you when you do plan?

• Requirements are clearly defined, and we all know what done looks like. It’s easier to see the road ahead when we really know what we’re working toward, and when we’re done, we are sure of it.
• Scope becomes visible, making it easier to estimate and track progress. This is especially helpful when you’re answerable to someone else.
• Interdependencies can be identified early. After they’re identified, then priorities can be set, and schedules can make the most of the time and people you have.
• Risks identified in planning can be called out, and mitigations and contingencies can be put in place to decrease the risk to the project.
• You have the ability to quickly react to changes in requirements, scope, capacity, or quality, and to make informed choices based on a more complete picture of the project.

I’ve figured out that time spent planning is usually time well spent. A plan has to be commensurate with the size and timeline of the project. A small project requires less planning, but planning nonetheless.

As “Hannibal” Smith from The A-Team used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”