Are you a Planner or a Pantser? And what does this mean about your options for doing projects in your organization?
Planner vs. Pantser is a distinction made when folks talk about National Novel Writing Month — taking place now in November.
📖 Planners plot out their novels in advance and write within their outline.
🦄 Pantsers have a vision about where they want to go but do their writing every day “by the seat of their pants,” letting the plot emerge.
This reminds me of the distinction between very planning-focused Waterfall project management and the more flexible Agile approach.
But with projects, it’s more than just your personality that determines your method!
💥 We must recognize that many projects CANNOT BE PLANNED.
These projects have such inherent uncertainty that the most efficient and effective approach looks more like Pantser. Examples: 🎁 New Product Development 🎰 New Business ⏳Process Improvement
We must be successful with these projects, but we can’t plan them out in advance. I recommend an Agile approach for these projects. Using robust processes, we make great decisions all along the way and complete these projects quickly and with incredible quality.