The Two Minute Project Manager
Robert J. Morgan, PMP

Concerning Progressive Elaboration

Years ago, I worked for a Manager who declared to our team, “In developing your tasks, don’t let the ‘Good Enough’ stand in the way of the Perfect...” I recall thinking, what does that mean? An experienced IT Professional, “Charlie F.” was quite adept at Process Development, Project Management, and Process Engineering. In his experience, if one waits for a thing to be perfect before submission, one is late and therefore loses. Experience had taught him this.

This premise reminded me of a story about Company XYZ. This is a true account --only the names have been changed. XYZ was developing a product for the emerging Network Technology Marketplace almost 20 years ago.  The Founder and CEO of the Firm was aiming to build the best quality and most fault-tolerant device available. He wanted the best hardware and supporting application software available. His goal was to capture a telephone industry-standard 99.999% (5 Nines) reliability. For many months, the XYZ Engineering Staff worked to perfect what they knew would be the finest product around. Indeed, it was a great product and everyone agreed that it was. But they were late to the Market.

Their competition had already sold a considerable amount of equipment, was gaining market share, and bringing in revenue. The ABC Company had a less-resilient product, but it was ‘good enough.’ The market needed the technology and ABC was willing to fill that need despite some shortcomings. The ABC Company was adept at working with their customers to adjust or fine tune product shortcomings where possible and setting the appropriate expectation with their customers. They did not over-promise and under-deliver.  Today, ABC is the leader in Data Network technology and is a household name. What happened to XYZ? 

Who?

With regard to Project Management, the concept of “Progressive Elaboration” fits a similar situation. When a project is in the planning stage, some work packages are defined, though many aspects of project detail and project requirements are unknown. It is true enough however, that the better a project is planned, the more successful it will be. The biggest reason projects fail is poor planning. Cobbling together a plan to the best possible degree and knowing project facts as conditions permit, is critical to project success. In a perfect world, that is. Therefore, putting together a risk analysis plan is a key component to overall project planning as well. Enter Progressive Elaboration.

Progressive Elaboration is a construct used in projects to facilitate project change or “refinement” as necessary. Once a plan is developed and the project ‘unknowns’ are known, Project Managers can use Progressive Elaboration to integrate appropriate project change and adjustment as necessary. Successful Project Managers often employ this tool to mitigate being “late out of the gate.”

If one waits to develop the ‘perfect plan’, execution of the project would never commence. You Lose. The Project Loses. The Firm and its Employees lose.