How to Fail in Project Management (Without Really Trying)

Project management techniques have met with widespread acceptance as a means of expediting product development, making efficient use of resources, and stimulating cross-functional communication. Not only manufacturing firms, but also legal offices, hospitals, and local governments have accepted project management as an indispensable part of their operations. Yet failures and outright disasters abound in the history of project management. A study of these failures indicates a dozen sure-fire methods for dooming a project: ignore its environment; push a new technology to market too quickly; don't bother to build in fallback options; when problems occur, shoot the person most visible; let new ideas starve to death from inertia; don't bother conducting feasibility studies; never, ever admit a project is a failure; micromanage the project managers and their teams; never, ever conduct post-failure audits; never try to understand project trade-offs; let politics dictate crucial project decisions; and make sure the project is run by a weak leader. However, past failure need not discourage us from future efforts. Indeed, it is through these past failures that we gain the savvy to push on to successful ventures.