Lean Project Planning: Using Lean Principles in Project Planning

摘要

Planning should be a crucial element of all types of projects, and its importance can hardly be overstated. Yet, planning is often not performed well. In this paper it is argued that this is due to a fundamentally erroneous approach to planning which is based on a division of the process between planners, who plan, and doers that use the plans which inhibits effective communication. By applying lean principles - principles that have produced excellent results in a number of settings - we propose to change this approach radically. Borrowing from the Last Planner System and combining it with Earned Value Project Management, we get a new approach called Lean Project Planning.