At the planning stage, we deal with far more than the mere project at hand. Weshape the overall pattern of our team's working using the division and type of activities we assign.

Making a project is a process that consists of some stages.

• Asking the team. They too must be involved in the planning of projects, especially in the lower levels of the work breakdown structure. Not only will they provide information and ideas, but also they will feel ownership in the final plan.
• Dangers in review. The constant trickle of new information can lead to a vicious cycle of planning and revising which shakes the team's confidence in any particular version of the plan and which destroys the very stability which the structure was designed to provide. We must decide the balance. To pick a point on the horizon and to walk confidently towards it. Ti decide objectively, and explain beforehand, when the review phases will occur and make this a scheduled milestone in itself. Even though the situation may have changed since the last review, it is important to recognize the work which has been accomplished during the interim.
• Testing and Quality. No plan is complete without explicit provision for testing and quality. A wise manager knows that this should be part of each individual phase of the project. This means that no activity is completed until it has passed the (objectively) defined criteria which establish its quality, and these are best defined (objectively) at the beginning as part of the planning.
• Fighting for time. A manager has to regulate the pressure and work load which is imposed upon the team; must protect them from the unreasonable demands of the rest of the company. Once you have arrived at what you consider to be a realistic schedule, fight for it. We try to offer a prototype service or product at an earlier date.