Top 3 Reasons Why Smart Project Managers Devote Time to Contingency Planning

Contingency planning can seem like a total waste of time in the big picture of delivering a project. After all why bother to plan contingency for risks which might never happen? Surely a better idea would be to ensure the risks raised don't occur, and concentrate on getting the project launched.

Well yes, this thinking certainly has some credence when confronted by certain Project Managers who spend all their time raising risks and then wasting even more time trying to mitigate them.However smart PM's know that to avoid this area completely is to simply store up problems for the future.

In fact I know of numerous deliveries which have failed for no other reason than the PM either did the wrong type of mitigation, or simply didn't understand how to do it effectively.

Remember simply doing this work does not give you any additional benefit, in much the same way that have a risk log won't help much either. The key is to know how to raise the potential problems which really matter and then understand which of these could benefit from being mitigated. This is much harder than it sounds. Get it wrong and your whole delivery could be in jeopardy over something minor, which you overlooked.

Therefore the top 3 reasons for contingency planning are:

1. Successful PM's know that without this work, the delivery effort is essentially running on a wing and a prayer with the PM desperately hoping that nothing unforeseen occurs to derail it. Of course in these cases the worst always does tend to happen.

2. Experienced professionals know that by undertaking this work they are providing a safety net for themselves later on in the delivery life-cycle. Without it, they understand they are taking an unnecessary gamble whilst simply hoping for the best, and not preparing for the worst.

3. Top notch PM's know that by being smart and understanding what to concentrate on and prioritize, it is possible to ensure no matter what happens, you as the PM look "good" and in total control of the delivery. This of course means that you as the PM are in the ideal "win win" situation

Of course it is one thing to know that you should do contingency planning, it is a whole different ball game to be able to do it successfully. It is after all, something which is usually extremely time intensive; something which no PM ever has the luxury of.

Therefore you need to really understand how to balance this work and make sure your efforts are effective enough, whilst not jeopardizing the future of the project, because you weren't spending enough time controlling it.

Susan_de_Sousa

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