No plan survives contact with the enemy - Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke (1800 - 1891)
This quote is often used by those in the agile community as an excuse for not having a Plan. von Moltke's quote means in practice that The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree that no human is able to see beyond the first battle. Another popular idea in the agile community is that military processes are flexible, adaptable, and emergent. Which they are, at one level - the field combatant level. At levels higher in the organization, strategies and plans define the mission, goal, and outcomes. I say this from hands-on experience, C/159, 101st Airborne Division, Phu Bai, Republic of Vietnam, 1969-1970.
This oft-used quote comes from a larger context, in Uber Strategie (On Strategy) in 1871
The material and moral consequences of every major battle are so far-reaching that they usually bring about a completely altered situation, a new basis for the adoption of new measures. One cannot be at all sure that any operational plan will survive the first encounter with the main body of the enemy. Only a layman could suppose that the development of a campaign represents the strict application of a prior concept that has been worked out in every detail and followed through to the end.
Certainly, the commander in chief will keep his great objective continuously in mind, undisturbed by the vicissitudes of events. But the path on which he hopes to reach it can never be firmly established in advance. Throughout the campaign, he must make a series of decisions on the basis of situations that cannot be foreseen. The successive acts of war are thus not premeditated designs, but on the contrary are spontaneous acts guided by military measures. Everything depends on penetrating the uncertainty of veiled situations to evaluate the facts, to clarify the unknown, to make dicisions rapidly, and then to carry them out with strength and constancy.
Plans are constantly updated with information from the field. The higher level strategy for the battle is implemented by the lower level Plans.
And General George S. Patton reminds us ...
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.
Notice General Patton says a good Plan is better, not No Plan. Planning is a strategy for success. Planning by its very nature is adaptive. To suggest that Plans are fixed is to restate that those who have fixed Plans are Bad Project Managers.
Adaptive Planning recommended Best Practices:
- Establish the Integrated Master Plan, showing the program architecture using a Systems Engineering process to define the value stream of the increasing maturity of the project's deliverables.
- The Plan is the strategy, the Schedule is the work sequence and duration to produce the elements of the value stream. For a traditional project, these can be work packages. For an Agile project, the Product Roadmap, Release Plan, Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog serve the same purpose.
- The value is defined in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers.
One final military quote is useful here. The Seven P's
Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
So when you hear from some project management or agile thought leader that plans are a waste, start coding and we'll discover what the customer wants. Ask the customer how much they're willing to pay for outcomes that aren't what they wanted in the first place?
Hoora - US Army 101st Air Borne Ranger battle cry. With Oorah for Marines and Hooyah for Navy.
