I’ve built a lot of project plans over the last couple of decades. I love a good project plan. I’ll get my coat! The thing is, a proper project plan is a beautiful thing. No really. I imagine many who haven’t built a project plan, even if they’ve seen them, might shrug and say ‘So what? How big a deal is a list of tasks with dates?’. If you’re not a project manager, but work with PMs, I’d love you to read on and then evaluate your current level of appreciation.

They want their projects to be on time and they want you to do whatever it takes to achieve that and don’t come to them with problems or reasons why it can’t be done. Many project managers will have experienced this challenging stance from senior stakeholders.

Such an attitude can perhaps to a large extent be justifiable. Whilst your project may be 100% of your working world, it might be 10% of theirs or even less.

I hear a lot of talk and read a lot of stuff about Product versus Project and the end of life as we know it for projects. And there’s the endless jostle with Waterfall versus Agile, as though you have to pick one end of the spectrum. It isn’t even a spectrum actually. They aren’t opposites. Like gymnasts and 400m relay runners aren’t opposites.