Planning vs Serendipity

I have worked with some people who have the “it will all work out” view of projects, especially when times get tough. Now, I do believe that all work does eventually get done (and it is just a matter of how much pain is required to do it) but I also believe that this is a function of planning and diligence. Projects do not naturally get completed without ‘care and feeding’ from the Project Managers with things such as…

• Detailed plans
• Monitoring and tracking of milestones
• Driving issue resolution
• Ensuring resources have what they need to complete their tasks
• Removal of obstacles
• Pushing for decisions

None of the above items happen serendipitously; they happen when diligent Project Managers are doing their jobs. I would love it if milestones magically were met and issues just happened to sort themselves out….but I have been on enough projects to not believe that to be the case. So, folks, we have work to do and it is hard work but we are the ones who can make it happen.