Planning
One of the challenges that planners and everyday people frequently face is forecasting the time to execute a task or project. In principle, this problem is associated with factors such as the lack of information about the task being planned, the lack of experience, the little knowledge of those who plan and the lack of time to analyze in detail the agents involved in what is being planned. plan.
There are also cognitive factors, linked to the type of information that a person selects during
Planning is a process in which the sequence that will be followed to move from a current state to a future state and achieve a goal in a scheduled time is systematically established.
The planning process is based on 3 main steps; Planners receive project specifications in the form of 'project scope'. With this information, they prepare a preliminary sequence for the development of their stages, for which there are electronic tools that help establish the sequence of activities; and finally, the execution times of each activity and the total development time of the project are foreseen.
However. Do we really have all the information when planning?
The lack of information or ignorance about the existence of certain phenomena can be explained by the principle of 'bounded rationality': since human beings do not have access to or cannot process all the information available in their environment, some The work of deciding is done in the midst of uncertainty. Therefore, decisions may be satisfactory, but not optimal. Consequently, when planning, only satisfactory execution times are calculated, but not optimal.
There is another term known as 'planning fallacy'. People tend to underestimate the execution times of simple or complex tasks because they use singular information, rather than distributed information. Singular information is obtained by observing the task from an internal perspective, on the other hand, distributed information refers to knowledge regarding similar situations; analyze what the final result of the project was and what factors influenced the execution of the tasks; that is, from an external perspective.
Another important concept related to project planning is mental scenarios; That is, they are imaginary plans related to the development of a certain situation. In general we create more optimistic scenarios than what the true situation guarantees. Its use can be a very useful tool in planning and calculating task execution times.
The problem with scenarios is the tendency to create only those that look positive, therefore, when the sequence of development of a task is recreated through mental scenarios, there is a tendency to underestimate the inconveniences that may hinder its development
Conclusions:
- We must be realistic when planning. It is humanly impossible to have all the information; Therefore, we must ask and seek advice to obtain the greatest amount of information. Sometimes we despise the experiences of others and, what is worse, we dare to despise our own experiences, especially if they are negative.
- Let's be reasonable when planning. Mental scenarios that 'hide' possible setbacks for what is planned do not help. Dismissing the possibility of a setback occurring when we create mental scenarios will only produce an illusion of success that has nothing to do with what can really happen.
- Beware of exaggerated motivation. Thinking that we are supermen who can succeed in any company, even when experience shows many negative results in similar organizations, is a behavior that will only bring frustration.
