Publilius Syrus was a Syrian who was brought to Italy as a slave but by his wit and talent he won the favour of his master who freed and educated him. He became famous as a writer for his sententia which are brief moral sayings, proverbs and maxims.

His most popular is

A rolling stone gathers no moss

meaning that ‘people who are always moving, with no roots in one place or another, avoid responsibilities and cares’.

But his understanding of project management comes with this piece of wisdom,

It is a bad plan that admits of no modification

Large projects and particularly public sector projects have a life and a momentum of their own which can make stopping or radically altering them almost impossible. Recent examples are the rollout of Universal Credit in the UK (the DWP ‘does not have a realistic alternative but to continue’ despite being 6 years behind and having spent £1.9bn to date – Rolling Out Universal Credit, NAO 2018) and the various upgrades to the UK’s Nimrod maritime and patrol aircraft. The last upgrade (MRA4) was ultimately cancelled in 2010 at which point it was £789 million over-budget and over nine years late.

The pressure on project managers to report that ‘all is well’ or ‘a RAG status of green’ can make giving bad news one of the most difficult of a project manager’s duties. But an honest appraisal of a project’s status can be one of the most valuable services you as the project manager can provide to your sponsor however discomforting in the short term.

Two thousand years on and a few well-chosen words from the great man are as true today as they were then,

Never promise more than you can perform