I think the executing phase is the most important. A lot of people believe planning to be the most important. It is but one cannot plan for all the eventualities and problems that will arise in the project. But once that project makes it into the execution phase then it becomes critical that those who are in charge of the actual execution of the plan execute. Inevitably there will be issues with the execution that cannot be planned for. Things like critical personnel being sick or otherwise unable to do their job. In order to properly correct them and get the project back on scheduled those executing on the project will have to work harder.

I have some experience with this in my co-op. I have been working on this project where the ingredients in the formula needed to be cleared or use by the department that is responsible for that. We had protections in place if the specific person we would be working with was unable to complete their tasks for any reason, but we had no plan for if their whole office got sick and was unable to complete their portion. All of our other steps were relying on this one (because of company policy not for this project). Luckily during execution we were able to change to a different team and they were able to take over the work and get it done quickly. But if execution was unable to pivot quickly we would have been delayed at least one full week, possibly more.

Whilst my belief may come from a singular experience, I still think it holds true that execution is the most important. Does anyone disagree with what I’ve said?