Embracing Serendipity In Project Planning: Making Room for the Unexpected
Most project plans are written with the best information available at the time. The team knows what it wants to achieve. The deadline has been agreed. Responsibilities have been discussed, tasks have been listed and everyone has a reasonable idea of what needs to happen next. Then the project starts. A customer asks a question nobody expected. Someone notices a problem with the original approach. A supplier changes its timeline. A team member suggests an easier way of doing something. During research, the team finds an opportunity that was not visible when the plan was written. Now the project has a choice to make. Should the team stick rigidly to the original plan, or should it stop and consider whether the new information changes what it should do? That is where embracing serendipity in project planning becomes useful. Serendipity does not mean allowing a project to become unfocused. It means recognising that useful things can happen outside the original plan—and givin...