Project Management vs Playing Chess

Project Management vs Playing Chess

1. A plan is needed. You need to have a plan (& strategy) on how you want to run the project (which methodology to be used, what are the deliverable, when to to deliver it), play chess (chess strategy what else). B plan is also needed :-).

2. But be alert & flexible - a.k.a be street smart. But quite often, things that are out of our control will happen and disrupt our plan. A team member can leave the project and the opponent can make an unexpected move. It's very important that we are always on alert on whats happening and it is equally important to react fast. We must be flexible to change our plan based on new circumstances to avoid critical delay in the project or loss of a piece or worst still loss of the game.

3. Sunk cost. In business, there is a term called "sunk cost". Sunk cost means the cost that has already occurred and should not be considered for future decision making. Similarly is projects, there can be a deliverable which was identified earlier as needed but later need to be dropped.  In chess, we may have sacrificed a piece as part of our strategy but after we realized the strategy won't work, we should not worry about it anymore and should start fresh. In another word, stop carrying the baggage from previous decision that may not be valid moving forward.

4. Stay cool. When the going gets tough, the tough must get going!!.