Brian Tracey, a recognized Canadian-American self-development author, once said “Every minute you spend in planning saves ten minutes in execution”. I believe this quote is accurate in the context of approval workflows in project management.
As project managers, we are responsible for a plethora of activities. From task management, resource planning, scopes of work, project plans, and time management to approvals, rapport building, and stakeholder management.
Although we know that schedule, scope and cost are the three major project constraints, I would consider approvals as a close fourth. Even though approvals might not be the first activity we think of, it’s definitely one that puts a strain on our timelines. Sometimes we have tasks within our plan that have dependencies on stakeholders rather than other tasks. If no approval is given, we reach an impasse and risk delaying the project.