The Pyramid of Giza, the Colosseum, and the Transcontinental Railroad are all great historical projects from the past four millennia. When we look back, we tend to look at these as great architectural or engineering works. Project management tends to be overlooked, and yet its core principles were used extensively in these projects. This book takes a hard look at the history of project management and how it evolved over the past 4,500 years. It shows that "modern" project management practices did not just appear in the past 100 years but have been used - often with a lot of sophistication - for thousands of years. Examining archaeological evidence, artwork, and surviving manuscripts, this book provides evidence of how each of the nine knowledge areas of project management (as shown in PMI's PMBoK(r) Guide) have been practiced throughout the ages. The book covers the period from the construction of the ancient pyramids up to the 1940s. A future companion volume will cover more recent developments during the war years and the technology boom leading up to the present. As readers explore the many case studies in this book, they will discover fascinating details of innovative projects that produced many of our most famous landmarks and voyages of discover

This book examines the management of three projects from the nineteenth century which led to substantial business transformation: the Stockton to Darlington Railway, the US Transcontinental Railroad and the Manchester Ship Canal. The lessons learned are of great relevance to contemporary project management, particularly those concerned with disruptive technology. The book addresses a wide range of project management topics associated with transformation. These include value management, sponsorship, governance, partnerships, opportunity management, project culture and morale, project complexity, uncertainty, prototyping and piloting, agility, innovation, risk and knowledge management.

White Star's initiative to build its new Olympic-class ships can be described as a text book project. It started off very well in the initiation and planning phases: the project team had a very good understanding of the business and customer needs, a solid vision, a superlative business case, the right supplier partnerships, good stakeholder relationships, and a healthy balance of proven and emerging technologies. By the end of the design phase, however, decisions were made that compromised safety features. The architects assumed that the aggregated effect of the reduced safety features and advanced technologies would still protect the ships. By the end of the fitting-out phase, all key stakeholders believed that the ships could never founder. The belief in Titanic's invincibility grew through the sea trials and into the maiden voyage. Everyone-from the captain and crew to the 53 millionaires on board-believed this. Why else would the wealthy and powerful have filled the hold and safes with cars and riches, and come aboard on a potentially treacherous route? Fundamentally, they believed that man had conquered nature and there was little risk. This book reveals the project management blunders that doomed Titanic while it was still being built-mistakes that you can avoid repeating in your own projects. Filled with photos and copies of actual documents from the project, this book walks you through a case study in project management failure.

This book examines the management of three projects from the nineteenth century which led to substantial business transformation: the Stockton to Darlington Railway, the US Transcontinental Railroad and the Manchester Ship Canal. The lessons learned are of great relevance to contemporary project management, particularly those concerned with disruptive technology. The book addresses a wide range of project management topics associated with transformation. These include value management, sponsorship, governance, partnerships, opportunity management, project culture and morale, project complexity, uncertainty, prototyping and piloting, agility, innovation, risk and knowledge management.

While you might think your project plan is perfect, would you bet your life on it? In World War II, a group of 220 captured airmen did just that -- they staked the lives of everyone in the camp on the success of a project to secretly build a series of tunnels out of a prison camp their captors thought was escape proof. The prisoners formally structured their work as a project, using the project organization techniques of the day. This book analyzes their efforts using modern project management methods and the nine knowledge areas of the "Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" (PMBOK). Learn from the successes and mistakes of a project where people really put their lives on the line.

Around the turn of the millennium, there was a poll conducted in Britain that asked who people thought was the most influential person in all of Britain's history. The winner: Winston Churchill. What set Churchill above the others was his leadership qualities: his ability to create and share a powerful vision, his ability to motivate the population in the face of tremendous fear, and his ability to get others to rally behind him and quickly turn his visions into reality. By any measure, Winston Churchill was a powerful leader. What many don't know, however, was how Churchill used his leadership skills to restructure the British military, government, and even the British manufacturing sector to support his efforts to rearm the country and get ready for an imminent enemy invasion in early 1940. Churchill started making massive changes immediately after his appointment as Prime Minister, with little time for preparation. That summer, British and German aircraft skirmished in the skies above Britain in preparation for a full German assault on the island nation. Churchill's adaptive sense-and-respond approach to the invaders made the Royal Airforce much more agile and responsive to the changing situation, allowing them to repel a much larger and better-equipped enemy. In addition, his changes to the manufacturing sector allowed the nation to dramatically speed up the production of new aircraft to replace their staggering losses. A lot can be learned about how he managed this enormous change effort. Fortunately, documents and other evidence exists that explains how he did it. Join author Mark Kozak-Holland as he explores how Churchill acted as the head project manager of a massive change project that affected the daily lives of millions of people. Learn about Churchill's change management and agile management techniques and how they can be applied to today's projects.

Titanic's maiden voyage was a disaster waiting to happen as a result of the compromises made in the project. This book explores how non-IT executives can take lessons from a nuts-and-bolts construction project like Titanic and use those lessons to ensure the right approach to developing on-line operations. Looking at this historical project as a model cuts away the layers of IT jargon and complexity. Avoiding Project Disaster is about delivering IT projects in a world where on-time and on-budget is not enough. It will help you successfully maneuver through the ice floes of IT project management in an industry with a notoriously high project failure rate. This book outlines the stages involved in creating mission critical services and the underlying environment to support these. Specifically, the book provides the non-technical manager a step-by-step guide to the deliverables that the IT department should produce at each stage of the creation process. The book enlightens the non-technical manager to the fact that a considerable part of the effort is in realigning the organization and procedures rather than technology. Knowing the rationale for and the timing of deliverables enables the non-IT manager to be a full participant in the creation process. The book leaves the reader with a simple philosophy: namely, focus your IT investments on getting your organization and procedures aligned and you can get best-in-class results from your technology. The book uses close to 90 figures and more than 40 tables for clarification of major concepts through detailed models, e.g., Change Management (9-step model) and Problem Management (4-step model).

Winston Churchill is widely regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century. But as he became Prime Minister in May 1940, in a period of calamitous change, what did he actually do? How did he transform his organization to turn his perilous situation around? Both Churchill in 1940 and business people today grapple with an unprecedented level of change adversely impacting their organizations at the enterprise, business unit, or project level. Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise is about how Churchill, under tremendous pressure, inspired his nation to continue a fight already considered lost. Not only did he have to stave off an imminent enemy invasion but he had to move the peacetime economy to one that could support a war. This meant focusing slender resources on the immediate threat, unifying a disparate economy, and directing its output into immediate military use. Within a very short time, Churchill had to transform his organization to the modern-day equivalent of an Adaptive Enterprise so that it could adapt to this unexpected situation. He did this using the emerging technologies of the day, and of course he had to get it right the first time and make the investments count. As he illustrates Churchill's journey to an Adaptive Enterprise, author Mark Kozak-Holland draws parallels between events in World War II and today's business challenges. An Adaptive Enterprise modifies the way an organization behaves -- primarily, in how it wrestles with change. Adaptive Enterprises rapidly react to business events in real-time, comparing them against various scenarios, and enact appropriate countermeasures to stay ahead of the competition and thrive. Through recent advances in emerging technology, large organizations can become more agile and mimic the characteristics of a small organization. Churchill created his Adaptive Enterprise in a very dire situation. Not only did the transformed organization work, but it surpassed all expectations and changed the course of history. This book will show you how he did it, and how you can do the same in your own organization.

R.M.S. Titanic was considered by many, including its designers and builders, to be an unsinkable ship. With redundant safety systems that used the latest emerging technologies of the day, the ship was considered so safe that it did not even need a full complement of lifeboats. Yet, a collision with an iceberg put an end to the ship on its maiden voyage and led to the deaths of thousands of passengers and crew. The sinking of Titanic is one of the worst maritime disasters ever. "Titanic Lessons for IT Projects" analyzes the project that designed, built, and launched the ship, showing how compromises made during early project stages led to serious flaws in this supposedly "perfect ship." In addition, the book explains how major mistakes during the early days of the ship's operations led to the disaster. All of these disasterous compromises and mistakes were fully avoidable. Author Mark Kozak-Holland shows how the lessons learned from the disaster can be applied to IT projects today. In modern IT projects, we often have situations where we believe that we have designed, built, or launched a "perfect" solution. Kozak-Holland juxtaposes the Titanic story and modern IT projects so that we can learn from the disaster and avoid making similar mistakes. Entertaining and full of intriguing historical details, the book helps project managers and IT executives see the impact of decisions similar to the ones that they make every day. An easy read full of illustrations and photos to help explain the story and to help drive home some simple lessons.