The Bridge Building Plan

According to the PMBOK, the Project Management Plan defines how the project is executed, monitored, and controlled. Steven Sinofsky, the former President of Microsoft’s Windows division, adds that the how and why of the project is an important piece of the plan. The post, “Engineering and social science lead to plans“, is about projects to build technology products. Its lessons are applicable to all types of projects

The Plan as a Bridge

Bridge of Sighs (Cambridge)The team owns the how and the sponsor owns the why. Sharing these through the plan creates a guideline for the project team and the sponsors.

The team makes choices about the means to produce the deliverables. At the same time, the sponsor is making decisions in response to an ever-changing environment. This makes a shared and detailed sense of the overall plan a critical element for success.

The plan acts as a “framework for making decisions.” To make informed decisions, the team needs to understand the context of the project, the sponsor needs to understand how the solution works. “The point of a plan is to build a bridge made up of the how and why.”

About the Plan

Leaderfoot stepping stones tabletThe article also presents many key aspects of a project plan:

  • The most counter-intuitive notion of a plan is that the presence of a plan means you have the tools to change the plan, together as a team.” — Plans are not chiseled into stone and publishing them provides anchor points that avoid chaos, finger-pointing and accountability dodging.
  • The headline of a plan is a solution to a problem — A plan that gives the objective as a top-line business goal forgets the how. Setting the solution as the goal forgets the why. A plan’s headline needs two legs, the how and the why, to stand.
  • The plan is a team effort  — The best plans are the plans that have the best ideas from the most people and more people contributing is more people with a real commitment to the project.
  • Write down the plan – Slides are summary bullet points. The writing process helps you check the plan for completeness and consistency. It is as important as the contents of the plan.

Starting your plan with the how and why gives context for simpler, better decision-making. Including everyone in the preparation gets buy-in and improves the quality of the plan. Together they help create a plan that makes the execution, the monitoring, and the controlling of the project easier.

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