Paul has been hammering away at the process re-engineering project at a local home improvement depot. He’s been building his project plan a module at a time, as information becomes available. Which best describes Paul’s approach to this project?
Explanation
Answer: a - Paul is utilizing a rolling wave approach, which allows him to plan his project in segments. A rolling wave technique typically means making a high level plan for the entire project, and planning out tasks in detail for only a short period in the future (say, the next week or two). The potential drawback of this approach is the temptation to not do adequate planning and scoping because of the short lead time that is available once all details of a phase become known. However, rolling wave planning can be extremely effective in projects with high uncertainty.
The WBS-stylized approach is to break down tasks into small work units.
The laissez-faire approach refers to a ‘come what may’ style - not endorsed by us for Project Management, nor by many governments for that matter.
Lastly, AOA refers to Activity-on-Arrow, an arrow diagramming method.
Key Take Away: When tackling large scale projects, Project Managers start out with the odds stacked against them given the exorbitant number of variables and unknowns that need to be investigated and analyzed. In some cases, industries or companies can be so fluid that planning anything more than a week or a month out on a large project may not make any sense. In these cases, rolling wave planning can be an effective way of focusing on making progress in the near-term without spending too much time on predicting a future that can’t be predicted. However, a project manager utilizing rolling wave planning must mentally prepare his or her team to work well in the face of constant change and ambiguity. This type of environment is not for everyone.
