Making It Happen: A Non-Technical Guide to Project Management

17.5. As Complicated as it Needs to Be

Four hours later we stood back to admire our work. Mark said, "It looks like a spaghetti dinner." Luigi disagreed. "Too messy," he said.

We had over 80 tasks with all their logic relationships stuck up on the board on the time scale. As well, we had identified the resources required to perform each task. It was a significant amount of information in one place. Best of all, at least in my eyes, our time scale was telling me that we would be finished during the third week of June—barring surprises of course.

"Ralph isn't going to like it," warned Alice.

I reacted a little defensively. "Why wouldn't he like it? That's our execution plan right there, all the information we need to know. What's not to like?"

"All I'm saying, Will, is that it looks complicated. Ralph doesn'tlike complicated things, and neither does the Hyler board."

I should have paid more attention to Alice's comments, but I was too high on our plan. "Does everyone agree that we now have a real handle on this execution plan?" Everyone nodded vigorously. "Is there any information on this plan we could do without?"

Sheila was adamant. "Absolutely not, Will! Everything is there in one place. Sure it looks complicated, but once we put it into the software we'll be able to clean it up."

I felt satisfied. "There you go, then. This is only as complicated asit needs to be. I expect that both Ralph and the board will appreciate that." I turned to Amanda. "I'm meeting with Ralph January ...