Level of detail

There’s an appropriate level of detail for plans in the management layer, and it’s best to leave the rest to the teams, because otherwise your plans will become too complicated and inflexible.

PRINCE2^®, for example, has a high-level plan created upfront, relatively detailed plans for each stage created right before starting that stage (the manage by stages concept), and finally, a fully detailed team plan that is up to the teams and not the project management layer.

Finally, while we insist a lot on planning, it doesn’t mean that everything must be planned! The insignificant details are best left to ad hoc decisions of team members in order to keep the plans simple and allow more flexibility in the project.