Nicholas Nesto PMPProject Manager| Kraft FoodsEast Hanover, Nj, United States
what is the difference between contingency plans and fallback plans? Saving Changes...
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Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Nicolas
The question is simple but the answer is slightly more complex. A contingency plan is a plan which defines activities to take in case of an emergency or when things go wrong. See also
In most cases a contingency plan is associated with risk management in a project, in the case a risk occurs these actions have to be taken to control/mitigate the risk.
A fall back plan is an alternative in case a certain approach fails. Most often you find fall back plans as a term when applciations are implemented in production associated to certain milestones, e.g. when the data conversion fails the old database must be restored and conversion eeds to be restarted. When the conversion is not finished by xx hours we will restore the database and plan the conversion in a weekend instead of overnight.
Hopes this helps
Hans Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Hi Nicholas,
Indeed, there is a relatively fine distinction between the 2 terms, even if – or especially when – one goes by the dictionary definition. On top of what Hans correctly indicated, I would add that I personally make the distinction such as:
- Contingency planning is targeted at potential events that, if they occur, could negatively impact the project. As such, this method is employed typically within risk management so it is under project manager’s responsibility. I visually associate it with shades of grey when presenting to stakeholders, to indicate a range of potential approaches based on impact, severity, risk tolerance etc.
- Fall-back planning is directed to a known, specific activity that could fail to produce desired outcome. It is typically associated with technical procedures under the responsibility of the technical lead (the project manager must ensure that it is created and validated, but may not even have the technical expertise to contribute to it). As a visual expression I use black and white to show that it’s an “either in or out” situation.
Hope it helps,
George Jucan
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Susan ParentePrincipal Consultant| S3 Technologies, LLCSelbyviile, De, United States
Both are developed before the risk event occurs and neither mitigate the risk. Mitigation is reducing the probability and/ or impact of the risk and is done before the risk event occurs.
Contingency plans and fallback plans are both developed before the risk occurs and they are used to deal with the risk event when it occurs (when it becomes an issue). Contingency plans are enacted when the risk trigger occurs. Fallback plans are for if the contingency plan did not work, they are not associated with a risk trigger.
See here for additional information: https://www.passionatepm.com/blog/fallback...-pmp-concept-33 Saving Changes...
