I too worry about the complexity of some current project planning systems. They are so complex that they often become a world of their own, apart from the real world which real people inhabit, and the dynamics of the planning systems become the be all and end all .... To work them requires the time to obtain enormous specialist expertise which is often purchased at the expense of front line experience.

Back in the 1980s, I was a deputy corporate planning director in a division of Reed International. Things were probably over-complex even then. However, we used to say that 'if it's too complex to write on the back of a fag packet it's probably too complex for real life'.

Please note, this is not an incitement for people to start smoking so as to amass a supply of used fag packets. A small Post-it note will serve equally well.