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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.
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.
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
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).
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.
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.
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