A while ago I was talking about the importance of preplanning your project:

"The idea about preplanning is to equip yourself in such a way that you can adapt to circumstances. That you create an start situation that is as good as you possibly can. If you go to the arctic, you take warm cloths, if you go to the tropics you pack T-shirts. If you don’t know, you pack several shirts you can wear over each other, depending on the temperature."

Although I like this description, I need a stronger image. I need to bring across the fact that you have "preplanning" and "preplanning".

You have The A-Team Way of preplanning. Every episode Hannibal was creating his cunning plan. It always involved welding metal plates onto a car of truck. They could handle every situation. A family in distress? The A-Team looked around in their hideout, and made use of whatever welding gear and car they happened to find.

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Sorry for the slow pace in postings recently. I traveled to London for a short holiday. LOVED IT! If we have one World City in Europe, it must be London. Anyway, I am back, and have some nice postings lined up for the next weeks, as we are approaching the one year anniversary of Project Shrink.

In the meantime I want to put your attention to a new category of postings I have created: Lenses. Gateway articles that each cover a certain topic from my blog and form an index to related articles.

Project Management: We Need Gumby!
Introducing The Fish Pond
On Why Project Sociology
Projects As Social Interactions

Craig Brown writes a blog at BetterProjects.net. Craig and I are regular readers of each other’s sites and now we are having a conversation from site to site.

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the great summary. Yes, I think the solution to the problem of changing requirements lies basically in education and training. The sources of the problems can be found in 1) lack of knowledge about true cause-effect-chains, and 2) mimicking the behavior of a certain group of people to be associated with that group. Proper training for Project Managers and stakeholders should reduce the negative effects of requirement changes.

Stereotype Australia photography by Reinn.

You mention Prince 2 and PMP for Project Managers and CAPM accreditation for general project stakeholders as an example of available education. Although I think our business world needs accreditation, it will only solve a very small part of the problem. Three kinds of "training", "coaching", "support" or whatever form is chosen, are needed:

1. Educating people in generic "HOW": How is a project done? What is typically expected of a certain role? This is to provide complete novices some guidelines and to create a common language among people involved.
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On this blog I talk a lot about the need for people to be able to see different perspectives on matters. An impressive example of this is shown in the video below
(if you read the RSS feed, you need to visit this post to view). In it an American programmer goes 30 days to Bangalore, India to work over there. He is laid off in the US, his job was outsourced to Bangalore. He starts out with a very angry attitude ("Dude! Give my job back!") and returns with a more mild perspective on things.

If you are from the US (or Europe) this video may be an eye opener. If you are from India, I am interested what your sentiments are regarding this video.

BTW this video might take some time to load. Part 1 and Part 2.

Thanks to Tim Ferris for pointing out this video.

People that work in groups (project, organization, society as a whole) have to cope with change. The more effective you are in this area, the more success you will have in this ever morphing world. This is a short outline of how people effectively cope with change.

Photography by Sabrina's Stash.

Humans In Groups Are Systems

"Whatever your take is on projects, at the end of the day it is just a bunch of people working together to achieve a certain goal. During this endeavor to laugh, cry, pull pranks, play dirty tricks and have all other kind of behavior towards each other." (source)
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My monthly column at TechTarget is up:

"But even when the (reputation) system is working properly, even when transparency makes sure people's behavior will be noted around the globe, this doesn't mean you can reap the benefits for your project or business. With a good reputation there is a lot to gain, but having a bad rep puts a lot at stake. So people will play things safe. They will create low-risk behavior, ultimately resulting in mediocrity…"

Read the entire column.