Time Core · Contingency Planning · Module
The fallback plan
What is done instead, prepared far enough in advance that it remains available when it is needed.
The idea
How it works
A fallback prepared when the delay is admitted is a fallback that is no longer available, because the alternatives with any real value required lead time.
The most common workable fallbacks are a reduced scope, a later date agreed early, or an interim arrangement — and all three are easier to arrange before they are needed.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Prepare it at the start
When there is time and no pressure. A fallback designed under pressure is whatever is left.
- 02
Note what it requires in lead time
That number is what sets the decision point, and it is the reason to prepare early.
- 03
Prefer reduced scope to a later date
Where a date matters, a smaller version delivered on time is usually better than the full version late.
- 04
Tell whoever depends on it
A fallback nobody has been warned about is a surprise rather than a plan.
One level in
The components of the fallback plan
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
A fallback designed under pressure is whatever is left. Prepare it while there is still a choice.
The other modules in contingency planning
Slippage
Where plans actually slip, by how much and why — established from history rather than from the assumption that this time will be different.
LearnBuffers
Reserve held deliberately and visibly rather than hidden inside individual estimates, where it is consumed without anyone noticing.
LearnDecision points
When the choice between continuing and changing course has to be taken — derived from the lead time of the alternatives rather than from the deadline.
Learn