If you are like most project managers, you may have had to return to the drawing board on projects due to the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At this point, nobody needs to tell you that such an unexpected event can wreak havoc on your project plans. As Matt Sharpe, agile principal consultant and practice lead at PM-Partners, notes, project managers are facing supply chain breakdowns, uncertain dependencies and distributed teams and stakeholders. It is essentially a “perfect storm” of disruptions, he writes.

It is leaving many project managers wondering just how they got in such a position when they accounted for risk in plans, how they are going to work their way out of the chaos, and how they are going to prevent falling into the same hole in the future.

That search for answers to questions you didn’t even think to consider when initially building project plans is why Sciforma’s Camélia Docquin suggests that the current pandemic could be “a welcome reality check” for project managers. It is pushing project managers to confront problems and build solutions that are “paving the way for tomorrow’s better, more efficient project management strategy,” she writes.

One of those improved strategies is going to be building project plans that are less rigid and, therefore, more responsive to unexpected events.

Flexibility Must be a Higher Priority in Project Plans

If there is one lesson that all project managers will be walking away with, it is that project plans must have some adaptability built in to them. Even if things are stable when plans are being designed, there has to be flexibility to allow for quick adjustments in the event of an unforeseen disruption.

What exactly does it mean for project management plans to be flexible? It means that organizations need to build systems that allow “project managers to quickly introduce new information into the decision making process,” writes Mustafa Hafizoglu, PMP, program director at Space & Defence Technologies in Turkey. When uncertainty enters into the project equation, project managers working within a system that responds quickly to new information are better able to make correct decisions for their projects, he explains. 

It’s a lesson that project managers in all industries are learning the hard way as they respond and adjust to COVID-19.

Construction Industry Struggles Highlight Importance of Flexibility in Planning

Take the construction industry, for example. The pandemic has significantly impacted the ability of construction stakeholders to initiate, continue and complete building projects on time and on budget, write Jim Dunlap, Bill Creedon and Jackie Golden at global advisory, broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson. 

Construction companies are faced with projects being shut down to limit interactions between people and because project financing is becoming tighter with supplies significantly delayed from both international and domestic suppliers, they explain. All of this is having significant consequences on project plans, schedules and risk, reports Annemarie Mannion at Engineering News-Record. 

"We've had $90 million in projects that have hit pause," says Kevin Byrd, vice president of operations for Central Texas at Bartlett Cocke General Contractors, a contractor for school building projects. Delays are a big problem for the company as many of the projects they work on are sensitive to school schedules. 

"Construction is not considered essential [infrastructure] in Michigan so we've had to halt progress on more than 100 projects," says Dana Galvin Lancour, vice president of branding and communications for Barton Malow, a Detroit-based construction company.

Project managers that are being grounded on almost all construction projects are scrambling for solutions to keep projects moving as much as possible and be ready to hit the ground running when that becomes possible. 

“One way to survive during these seemingly impossible times is to keep teams intact, replan and prepare, regardless of your construction project’s situation,” advises the team at Touchplan, a collaboration tool. However, without a responsive project plan, it’s harder to adjust to outside forces and get projects back on track, even when pandemic-related bans are lifted.

That’s why building a flexible project plan, in any industry, needs to be at the forefront of project management planning from the inception of a project.

How to Develop a More Flexible Project Plan

While there is certainly no way to plan for every possible disruption that could upset a project plan, project managers should be planning projects in a way that allows them to respond to unexpected events. 

From the Beginning, Look to the Future as Much as Possible

There are two types of disruptors that project managers must attempt to account for in project plans to keep them flexible: those that can be anticipated and those that cannot. Building flexibility into project plans requires forethought and planning by project managers to address both as best they can. 

By working with the team to build a plan, project managers can use contingencies to add flexibility into the project for when things go wrong or additional work is needed to achieve project goals, writes Laura Holder, senior manager at PMO consulting firm EPMA. “Contingency is used to help account for the unknown,” she explains. Certain forms of contingency can be planned for, such as additional time, money, resources and the approach you’ll take.

Contingency plans only work for disruptions that can be seen and identified. When it comes to unforeseen chaos, such as the impact of a pandemic, adapting plans may be more challenging, but not impossible. If a project plan already has some flexibility built in, it can respond more easily to the impact of changes.

Incorporating change control processes “ensure efficient use of resources and avoid any unnecessary hassle that might disrupt the other services” as a project works through changes, writes James Warner,
senior business intelligence analyst at NexSoftSys. By writing these processes from the beginning with the expectation of needing them, the transition will be smoother when changes do happen, especially unexpected ones.

Last responsible moments, a lean concept, are important for giving project managers an opportunity to adjust project plans. It encourages project managers to make decisions to achieve optimal outputs by leaving the decision-making until the last responsible moment, explains strategic management consultant Jimmie Butler, author of “Pursuing Timeless Agility.”

When built into project plans, the practice of waiting until the last responsible moment provides a level of responsiveness that allows project managers to adjust to unexpected future conditions. This ability to adapt makes it easier for project managers who find themselves faced with abrupt changes to keep moving forward with projects.

Have a Clear Communication Plan in Place

Communication is the key to success for any project, but can be especially crucial when an unexpected event throws plans off course. That’s why it is so important to create a comprehensive communication plan at the beginning of a project. It will guide you through the tough times of replanning and still meet the expectations of all stakeholders and project goals.

“A well thought-out communication management plan brings team-wide trust and success,” writes Robert Bruce at project scheduling platform TeamGantt. It helps project managers to build strong relationships with all stakeholders which will help projects run smoothly, he explains. This is especially useful in times of change.

Don’t Overplan the Project

Overplanning can be just as detrimental to a project as under-planning. When a project is overplanned down to every last detail, it can be nearly impossible to respond to unexpected events. 

“It’s good to set goals and milestones for the future, and even to create a work-breakdown-structure (WBS) to help you map out labor and schedule allocations, but it is possible to overplan,” writes Aleksandr Peterson, content product manager at Asurion. When project managers overplan, they don’t leave room for adjustments that may make or break a project down the road. 

“Overplanning will paralyze you and will drain the energy and flexibility required to make a project succeed,” says project management consultant Peter Taylor. When planning a project, plan for the obvious, but don’t plan so much that you are unable to shift gears at any point in a project.

Agile Methodology is Inherently Flexible 

By adopting the agile methodology for projects, project managers are already on the path to creating plans that are flexible and responsive. Agile focuses on working in sprints and meeting small deliverables. This leaves room for adjustments when things don’t go as planned.

In fact, adaptability is a core principle in agile development. “With agile, it’s easy to make changes to functionality, course corrections based upon user research, or even large pivots in direction or overall scope,” writes Ryan Ostrom, director of engineering for Praxent. “Agile not only allows for change but accounts for it, enabling the team to uphold the schedule and propel the forward momentum of the project”.

That ability to change is why following an agile methodology makes it easier to respond to major project-altering events, like COVID-19.

If there’s one thing the current pandemic has taught us is that we cannot be prepared for everything, but that we can be prepared to expect the unexpected. What’s most important at times like these, when projects are falling into chaos, is to be flexible and ready to adapt. “Flexibility is the most powerful tool in your toolbox,” writes Yada Senapathy, founder and CEO of the Project Management Training Institute.