Good planning is essential in successful delivery, and planning isn’t just something done at the start, it carries on throughout the process of implementation, right through to the service and maintenance phase of the tech.

A good plan starts as an exercise in working out how to get from now to the desired outcome. It eventually becomes a script for the whole project, so that every contributor knows what they need to do and when.

Managing the relationship[s between the deliverables is the most challenging activity as they interact with differing and sometimes unconnected parts  of a business.

1. Danger of PowerPoint – Plans poor quality and oversimplified
2. Good plans allow impact of changes to be seen readily and quickly through dependency management
3. Understand what the role of agile is
4. Recognise that making it up as you go along is expensive and wasteful
5. The good thing about developing a good plan is that it’s infinitely re-usable

Good planning often includes difficult conversations early on. However the benefit is that delivery becomes realistic, and all stakeholders are aware of what they are required to do and what risks, dependencies and constants need to be managed. Above all, planning brings a dose of reality to the proposed timelines. This is discussed in the next section.