Results Without Authority: Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn’t Report to You

Chapter 6. Building Control Through Project Planning

PROJECT INITIATION FOCUSES on where your project is going. Creating the plan for your project forces you to figure out how you are going to get there, giving you a foundation for tracking. Project planning contributes more to your overall control than just a baseline for monitoring. Planning is a collaborative process that establishes buy-in and ownership of project work and motivates your whole project team. A credible plan shows that your project is, in fact, possible (though rarely easy). Lacking a plan, expectations for the project are based on hopes, dreams, and wishes—not good foundations for building confidence, or control. Your plan will also provide you with predictive metrics that ...