While schedules on occasion may become ‘self-fulfilling prophecies’, is this because the schedule was an accurate predictor of the future, or did using the schedule change behaviours? My latest article, Is Planning Predictive or Persuasive [1] suggests that project controls staff and management place too much emphasis on attempting to develop the ‘perfect plans’ that accurately predicts future outcomes (a passive process that is doomed to failure), and not enough on using the planning and scheduling processes to proactively influence the direction of the project’s future work.
Download Is Planning Predictive or Persuasive from: https://mosaicprojects.com.au/Mag_Articles/AA019_Is_Planning_Predictive_or_Persuasive.pdf [1]