“A completed project is the deliverable, not a completed project plan”
Explanation:
One thing that affects larger projects and particularly affects a number of project managers who tend to think about the organisation of a project rather than the project itself. Is that people lose sight of what actually constitutes a deliverable, and therefore you end up spending a lot of time actually delivering to the organisation of a client or company, when that is not a genuine deliverable, 1
The easiest way to see this in action is on project plans with particular reference to delivery dates. while the dates are important milestones, they are only important in respect to the information they provide to other parts of the project, for example a financial audit or arranging a training company or what ever, and unless they are backed up with solid logic and delivery foundations you are building a house of cards, be very very wary of people who want a delivery date based on a guess just so they can fill in a plan.
However the important part of this is to make sure that delivery capable people, such as developers, or business analysts do not spend excessive time doing this, such time is lost time to the real delivery of the project, if a PM needs such dates then they should be the person working them out not transferring this difficulty to someone else.
Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.
- A Genuine delivery is one that either saves/makes money for a company or materially effects its place in the market place[↩]