Over the past few weeks, we’ve gone through the standard Initiation/Planning steps of a project, including: a) determining Who wants the project; b) establishing Why they want it; c) defining What deliverables we can create and provide that would satisfy that Why; d) determining exactly How Good those What’s must be; e) establishing How we’re going to create the What’s meeting those How Good quality standards; f) laying out a schedule that shows When all of this work will take place and in what order; g) estimating How Much this plan will cost to perform; h) identifying what Threatens our plans; and i) putting in place backup plans or Contingencies we need to put in place to militate against the threats.
So we’re done planning, right?
Uh, nope. In fact, our first pass through the Initiation/Planning steps is just that: the first of several times we loop through the questions. We call this looping or iterative process “progressive elaboration,” and it’s a powerful technique to plan or create most anything. If we’re designing a house, for instance, we don’t start by choosing the type of kitchen faucets on day one. Instead, we begin with getting clarity on the overall size and shape of the house, the number of rooms, the general layout, and such. We work with our stakeholders and agree on those elements before moving onto the next round of detail questions. And then we repeat the process, looping back and adding details to the project. We start with big picture questions, agree on those, and then add the next layer of granular detail.
Progressive elaboration ensures we’re not wasting time or having to go back and re-do/re-work project decisions. It lowers the overall risk of the project, helping us discover threats earlier in the process and allowing us to mitigate against them. It enhances flexibility of designs, as we can make big changes earlier without impacting many downstream design choices. And it helps with stakeholder engagement and buy-in; involving stakeholders early and often helps them become part of the solution, and not just naysayers we have to do battle with.
Whether you call it progressive elaboration, iterative refinement, continuous improvement, rolling wave planning, or just design looping, this is a highly useful technique to learn and employ. Performing design work, building schedules & budgets, identifying risks — essentially all aspects of project management can benefit from this approach. When constructing a work breakdown structure, for instance, we shouldn’t focus on small subcomponents until we first decide (and agree) upon the larger, overall deliverables and how they’re arranged. Then we can add in kitchen faucets when its appropriate.
Project success depends on us and our teams being both efficient and effective in our work. Progressive elaboration provides another powerful tool to help us get all the required work done in the most productive way we can. Said another way: learn to love the loop!