Rolling wave planning refers to a specific project management technique which is often implemented by the project management team and or the project management team leader for the purposes of establishing the order and pattern and location to which the work in relation to the project is planned to be performed, details at a very low level within the work breakdown structure the work that is anticipated to be beginning earlier, but details in a very much more significant level of detail the work that is anticipated to take place farther in the future of the project life cycle. Rolling wave planning technically is a type of progressive elaboration planning. This tends to allow for people to have a better tactical understanding of many of the project related elements that are happening farther out, elements that, for all intents and purposes, often times tend to be viewed more in theoretical terms than those that are sooner and seem more tangible.

This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.

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