ABSTRACT
A Question of Timing The question is: how soon before the project start date should you conduct the planning session? A good answer is: as close to the start date as possible. Ideally, you should finish the planning session and start the project the next day. This would be ideal and surely not a “rule.” The reason for completing the planning session so close to the project start date is simply that things change. The project definition (deliverables) can change. The available team members can change. The technology can change. Anything can change. The closer (planning session) to the start date, the less likely it is that major changes will occur. It is deadly to a project to plan the project, shelve the project plan, and then drag it out two or three months later for a project start. This would probably necessitate another planning session with probably the same team members — a team will have just so much patience. Try to conduct your planning session with no more than ten days’ delay from the session end to the start of the project. Experience tells us that the most powerful statement ever heard uttered at the end of a planning session was, “Team, tomorrow we will start our project using the project plan you just finished developing.”
