Introduction

Reverse planning involves a mature organization starting with the project’s end date state and working backward in time. PMs begin by identifying the last task, the next to last task, and so on. They continue until they reach the task that begins the project. It answers the question – Where do we eventually want to be?

Bottom line: you want to focus on what you want to achieve, then use that to build a last-to-first plan of action.

Along with greater clarity and long-term perspective, this planning method offers you continued motivation, stronger self-belief, and the ability to manage time more effectively. PMs often use reverse planning for projects that represent entirely new systems or approaches to doing a job, or to help create synergy with a project team.

Improved Communication

This last-to-first plan of action, or bottom-up planning, involves colaboration between team members who are actively working on the project. This can lead to better communication and team building, which can motivate team members to achieve project goals and value through milestone planning.

More Detailed Plan for Better Innovation

Identifying end tasks first can result in a more detailed plan, which may also lead to a more accurate schedule. When employees are empowered to make decisions, innovation can happen faster through idea-sharing and execution.

Reduced Wasted Resources

Clarity on project objectives can help reduce wasted resources that can occur when people misunderstand the project and go in the wrong direction. Bottom-up planning can reduce knowledge gaps within a team and encourages greater buy-in from team members because everyone is given the opportunity to influence decisions. One of the greatest benefits is having more realistic plans created directly with the employess involved which should form a comprehensive picture or solution.

Advantages

Bottom-up estimating is considered by experts to be more accurate than using top-down estimating where the mechanics are based on work breakdown structure (WBS) planning packages. So, the resulting estimate should be based on real views of the work packages. The total project estimate is then simply the aggregation of the lower-level work units. Therefore, the key advantages of using the bottom-up technique is the accuracy that it should provide, less chance of missed deadlines,  reduced risk, and better quality control.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage of this method is that it takes a considerable amount of time to create and involves larger organizational involvement which can be expensive to develop. Also, its not the best method to use if a quick estimate is needed in order to make a quick decision regarding whether to initiate a project. Why? There is not enough information available to develop detailed estimates early in the product development life-cycle. The other disadvantage of doing this is that estimators will often pad the estimates for each work product.

“Begin with the end in mind.” – Taskhen Covey, American educator, author, businessman and speaker.

Have you had success using bottom-up approaches to planning? Would you try it with your own project? Your feedback is always welcome here in the comments, and in the Community Discussion Forum!

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