INTRODUCTION

By the time you have completed Steps 1 “4 you have actually finished the planning for your project. If you have carried out the steps as we have described, then what you have done is you have built a working model of how your project might unfold over time. In a sense you know the answer. You know what's going to be delivered, you know when it will complete, you know how many people you need and a whole load of other useful information. In theory now, you could come scampering out of your office, go in to your boss or customer, and announce "We know the answer. It'll be November 27th," or whatever.

You could. However, stay your hand for a moment while you consider one other thing. What will you do if it doesn't turn out like your model predicts?

You see it's all too easy “ especially if you've gone into things in excruciating detail like we talked about, and even more so if your plan is now being output by a PC-based project planning tool “ to forget that everything that's in the plan is a prediction, a guess, a shot in the dark, a gamble. You know nothing in your plan for a fact. In fact the only thing you do know for a fact is that your plan is definitely not right. It couldn't be, it's a prediction of the future. Given that this is the case, the most you can hope for is that you get a lot of it right, and that where it's wrong it's not too far wrong. You need to ask yourself the question "what will I do if it doesn't work out like this?" And the answer you have to give yourself is to build in some contingency. That's what the first part of Step 5 “ call it Step 5a “ is about. It's about allowing yourself a margin for error, a fallback position.

Having built in some contingency for yourself, then you need to sell your plan to the powers that be and create the expectation to which you will then deliver. This is the other part of Step 5 “ Step 5b. We describe each of these steps in turn.