Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.

—Alan Lakein

HABIT FOUR

Plan from finish to start

FIRST GET THE MACRO VIEW

Fully capture the big picture first. Beyond understanding the detailed project scope, it is imperative to understand the purpose of the project from a bird's-eye view. Why are we doing this project? Who needs it? Why does it need to be finished by such a date? How does this project impact other projects? What benefits does this project entail? More importantly, how do we define project success? What metric(s) shall be used to define success with the project team, with the executive management, and with the customer? On the Washington, D.C. Metro (purple line) project where the roads had to be dug up, one key success component was “safety and least inconvenience to the motorist during rush hours.” This factor was paramount in the planning process and a critical component of project success.

Once the big picture is clearly understood by the project leader, then the next step is to understand the people or the team in that big picture. A project leader will break down that big picture into a smaller picture as appropriate and connect all the dots to recreate the big picture. This is what is meant by planning from finish to start. In pure project management jargon, it is the principle of the work breakdown structure (WBS). It is important to understand the work before breaking it down.

In building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) port in Qatar, the project leader envisioned the completed LNG port and had the renderings of the completed port posted in each conference room. One can develop varying degrees of prototypes such as a 4-D digital model, a 3-D scaled model, or a 2-D drawing/photo of the completed project. The project leader then planned the facility backwards and gave the blueprint to the project controls staff to develop the detailed schedule accordingly. The project leader always referred to the renderings of the completed port in every progress meeting. Monthly milestones were well-defined and the quantity targets of each commodity were closely tracked for both invoice preparation and progress reports. Having the big picture in front helped keep everyone focused on meeting the customer's goal of exporting the first LNG shipment by a certain target date.

Planning is the most critical process of all project management processes. The purpose of doing planning early is to address big problems while they are still small. Some project leaders resist early team engagement at multiple levels of hierarchy, fearing inefficiency in planning process and burning of additional resources. But broad involvement gets people more invested and enhances understanding of the scope.

On an important mining project, the project manager did not understand the importance of customer-driven intermediate milestones prior to construction. These milestones were critical for the customer to get financing. The project was planned in a way that delayed achieving these milestones, thus impacting the customer to secure financing on time. The project manager's lack of understanding of the big picture delayed the full notice to proceed (NTP) from the customer.

Plan → Big Picture

The business strategy behind promoting this habit is to ensure that high-level goals of the project are well-understood by each contributing member. The project leader needs to do conceptual planning from finish to start (i.e., the vision, the big picture) while the planning and scheduling managers do detailed planning from start to finish (scope implementation). The project leader must take the time to create a road map with clear directions.

This habit is primarily about getting a view of the big picture. Sometimes the projects are long in duration and we all get tangled up in the details and forget the larger purpose of why we are doing the project in the first place. A project leader has to visualize the complete project and get a clear understanding of the big picture at regular intervals. He or she would then share the big picture with the project team to motivate and guide them toward completion. The parable of three workers cutting stones demonstrates the reason why a clear big picture is so important:

When asked by a traveler what they were doing, the first stonecutter answered, “making a living.” When asked the same question, the second stonecutter stated that, “I am doing the best job of cutting stones,” while the third one said, “I am helping build a cathedral.” The second stone cutter had slightly higher aspirations than the first. The third stonecutter embraced the big picture.

Generally, we see a society of stonecutters like the second one (i.e., everyone trying to do their job as best as they can). However, a project leader strives to create a society of the third sort. Think of what you want your customer to say at completion of the project. Repeat that exercise with your management, your employees, and the end users in mind. Then work backwards to achieve that outcome. Project leaders will define the “wow” attributes they want for the finished project, such as:

• Outstanding quality

• Outstanding safety record

• Early completion

• Within original budget

• Excellent aesthetic design/finish (even if it is a trash-incineration facility)

• No adverse environmental impact

• Low-cost maintenance features

• Higher performance/capacity of facility than contracted

• Zero bugs

• Fast end-user adoption

Finish to start planning involves a higher level of work breakdown, sequencing, and scheduling of milestones and resources. It considers prime contract requirements. It defines external and internal relationships. It defines strategy to maximize financial results. All this planning and strategy is captured in the project execution plan.