Managing the Decision-Making Process during Project Planning

Abstract

In today's projects, the project team's decision-making process is critical to project planning. When making these decisions, however, the team must contend with the insidious elements of uncertainty and demand for speed that so often affect project performance and success. The project manager's principle role is to manage his/her team's decision-making and not to make the decisions. By defining the constraints under which the team must operate, he or she can influence their decisions. A valuable tool is suggested to manage the decision-making process, in an atmosphere of uncertainty, with instructions for its application to any project. The tool is a dynamic table that is continuously modified as the project progresses. It is not only a prioritized checklist, but also gives a total view of the project so that the team can collect missing information and make timely decisions to ensure project success.