Planning Isn’t Scheduling: Rethinking the Role of Planning in Programme Success
When project leaders talk about planning, they often mean scheduling. But real planning is much more than a series of dates on a Gantt chart. It’s about strategy, sequencing, decision support, and proactive risk management.
In complex railway environments — where dependencies are tight and margins for error are thin — the quality of planning can make or break a programme. Scheduling is a tool; planning is a mindset.
Here’s how we rethink the planning function:
Use planning to challenge assumptions, not just document them.
Integrate planning with commercial, technical, and operational inputs.
Focus on "what needs to be true" for key milestones to be hit, rather than only tracking outputs.
Treat planning as a live dialogue — not a static baseline.
The tools and practices that support this include:
Lookahead Planning Workshops: These sessions bring together engineering, commercial, and delivery teams to review upcoming tasks, validate durations, and test sequencing logic. They create space for proactive problem-solving and help build a shared understanding of what’s required over the next 2–4 weeks.
Integrated Master Schedules (IMS): These consolidate Primavera P6 (or equivalent) outputs with cost data, procurement milestones, and contractual obligations. The IMS becomes the single source of truth for programme tracking, giving leadership visibility into how time, cost, and scope are interrelated.
Rolling Wave Planning: This agile planning method allows teams to update and detail plans progressively. Near-term activities are highly detailed, while future work is kept at a higher level and refined as certainty increases. This reduces waste and avoids locking into rigid schedules too early.
Scenario Planning Tools (Deltek Acumen Fuse or Primavera Risk Analysis): These tools enable planners to test various what-if scenarios — e.g. material delays, resourcing constraints, or contractor underperformance — and identify mitigation strategies. These simulations create resilience by highlighting potential risks before they become problems.
Planning Governance Boards: These groups ensure planning decisions are coordinated, backed by data, and escalated appropriately. They provide an accountability framework that reinforces the planning process as a central delivery function, not a side task.
When implemented together, these tools transform planning from a passive reporting exercise into an active decision-support system. They help projects adapt to change, stay aligned with strategy, and build a proactive, performance-driven culture.
