The best laid plans...

I'm learning the value of flexibility in my approach to project management. Before taking on this project, my previous experience managing projects had been fairly structured. I've stuck very closely to a methodology and spent a significant amount of my time planning, scoping, documenting, analysing, and revising. I came to this project, easily the largest I've managed both in budget and impact, with the luxury of lead time. I had a chance to spend what I believed was adequate time planning and preparing for the implementation phases of the project. Of course, nothing ever goes to plan.

While I still value and appreciate good planning, and will never abandon it, this project has taught me the need to be flexible. I've had to change my tack on several aspects of the project and develop contingency plans, and contingency plans for my contingency plans. This project has also improved my ability to make decisions and to trust my own gut and experience, which frankly, has been scary at times. Scary, but damn fun too.