Project Management: A Managerial Approach, 8th Edition

CHAPTER 6

Project Activity and Risk Planning

This chapter initiates our discussions of Time, Quality, and Risk Management, PMBOK knowledge areas 3, 5, and 8, respectively. Time management is an extensive topic which is further discussed in Chapters 8, 10, and 11. Similarly, risk will be discussed further in Chapters 7 and 8, and quality will be discussed again in Chapter 12.

PMBOK Guide Chapters 6, 11, 8

In the Reader's Digest (March 1998, p. 49) Peter Drucker is quoted on planning: “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” To make such a transformation possible is no easy task. Inadequate planning is a cliché in project management. Occasionally, articles appear in project management periodicals attesting to the value of good planning. Project managers pay little attention. PMs say, or are told, that planning “takes too much time,” “customers don't know what they want,” “if we commit we will be held accountable,” and a number of similar weak excuses (Bigelow, 1998, p. 15). Tom Peters, well-known seeker of business excellence, was quoted in the Cincinnati Post: “Businesses [believe] a lot of dumb things…. The more time you spend planning, the less time you'll need to spend on implementation. Almost never the case! Ready. Fire. Aim. That's the approach taken by businesses I most respect.” We strongly disagree and, as we will report below ...