It's a famous quote from a German field marshall named Helmuth von Moltke (The Elder).
I believe Helmut was reincarnated as Scott Adams, though I have nothing to back that up with.
I recall a project where the Program Manager was very quick to announce during status meetings that we were "executing to plan". Her measurement of success was how well we were marching against the detailed project plan that had been meticulously put together over several months. Unfortunately this was flawed for a few reasons:
1. The plan was terrible.
2. If she'd talked to Helmuth, she would have realized that it was essentially out-of-date the moment the first task was started.
What pattern do I normally see?
Very late in the project, the status flips from "Green" to "Red" because executing against a plan doesn't mean you're really "done" or meeting the customers expectations. You are no longer reacting to or basing your decisions on reality (both status and environment) and the repercussions of discovering that late in the cycle are usually costly.
Very late in the project, the status flips from "Green" to "Red" because executing against a plan doesn't mean you're really "done" or meeting the customers expectations. You are no longer reacting to or basing your decisions on reality (both status and environment) and the repercussions of discovering that late in the cycle are usually costly.
Of course - Project Plans and Gantt charts can be very helpful when used correctly. I still use MS Project to map out release and integration milestones. It gives Executives and Stakeholders the ability to see at a high level what is happening/when in.
But a detailed MS project plan does not a successful project make.
