Putting the plan together for a project like this is a critical part of the start-up activities Unsurprisingly JISC requires projects to produce a comprehensive plan in the first few weeks, based on a detailed template, which is undoubtedly the result of their years of experience, and is tailored to cover all pertinent information, but which nevertheless seemed somewhat daunting at first.
The level of detail required meant wrestling with several ‘chicken and egg’ situations. How can I identify the post-project impact and create sustainability plans when we haven’t necessarily worked out all aspects of the project yet? How many risks can I accurately assess when I don’t yet know what’s going to go wrong? We’re in Donald Rumsfeld territory here, and suddenly ‘unknown unknowns’ becomes meaningful.
Much of December was spent in mental time travel, projecting myself into the future to identify outputs and outcomes, impacts and risks as well as how to publicise and evaluate the project during and after its completion. There’s also the issue of unpicking the assumptions about how the project will actually work, also known as explaining the ‘approach’. Whilst it can feel somewhat onerous to work through these details, it is ultimately useful, because it flushes out the stuff that you just haven’t thought about.
It’s helpful to keep reminding yourself too that just because something is in the plan, doesn’t mean it is cast in stone. Things will change as we progress and that is ok, as we can adjust the plan to absorb changes. Indeed there are already things that we are doing that have evolved differently to how we envisaged them only a month ago. The benefit of having the plan is that it provides the structure and thinking which gives you the freedom to make pragmatic or creative choices as the work progresses, without coming unstuck. Maybe I’m now a convert to detailed project planning, on the other hand, don’t ask me to start writing any other project plans just yet….