Purposeful planning is what ensures that the executive actions undertaken remain connected to the goals and outcomes expected by the stakeholders. There is no single approach to planning a project, but neither is project planning a free-for-all. This book takes you through many of the common planning situations you will meet, addressing how planning decisions alter depending on the project context.

It also discusses how resource-constrained planning differs from end-date schedule planning. The authors look at what is different between cost-constrained plans and time boxing and they discuss why you must plan when using Agile, and how to plan for innovation, as well as planning when managing a project portfolio, and what planning means in a program. To tell this story, we have distilled over seventy years of our combined personal experience of supporting project managers deliver, and thousands of person-years of others' practical knowledge to illustrate tools, models, and approaches that suggest what to do in what circumstances.

Also available are supplementary materials and tools, on a website associated with the book, which we hope you find useful when you plan your next project!