Hollywood Secrets of Project Management Success

Chapter 6. Strip Board the Script

Many projects that fall into trouble do so because they were headed that way right from the start. Drifting schedules, budgets, and resource levels often indicate initial performance targets that were insufficiently stated to begin with. The drifting, then, is not so much a measure of moving off course as it is an indicator of correction toward a course reflecting the project’s true nature. Projects get launched from such inauspicious beginnings for a variety of reasons. Preset deadlines and team sizes may be mandated from above. External business drivers may pressure premature action. But a chief and common reason for the drift, coming from within the shop, is planning that fails to use the requirements as a ...