Today, less than a third of projects deliver their specified business benefits on time and within budget. Nearly 20% of all projects fail outright, and under-delivery of benefits on the average project is as high as 50%. Acutely aware of this and without understanding the root causes of the problem, organizations are busy advancing capabilities and investing in methodologies and processes that increase complexity, but just deliver more failure. Using examples and lessons learned from high-risk environments where the price of project failure is death, this innovative and captivating guide provides powerful insights into the root causes of project failure and how to manage them. The author examines the failures and achievements of the Antarctic explorers Scott and Shackleton, Mount Everest expedition leader John Hunt, and modern-day Everest climbers, and expertly connects these to the high-risk world of modern day project and program management. Written from a base of in-depth project management knowledge and experience, this essential reference for business leaders, portfolio owners, project and program managers, business analysts, and risk managers, explores the drivers of risk in projects, the relationship between our ambitions and our abilities, and provides pragmatic real-world solutions to this constancy of project failure that readers can apply directly to their organization.

The growing complexity of projects today, as well as the uncertainty inherent in innovative projects, is making obsolete traditional project management practices and procedures, which are based on the notion that much about a project is known at its start. The current high level of change and complexity confronting organizational leaders and managers requires a new approach to projects so they can be managed flexibly to embrace and exploit change. What once used to be considered extreme uncertainty is now the norm, and managing planned projects is being replaced by managing projects as they evolve. Successfully managing projects in extreme situations, such as polar and military expeditions, shows how to manage successfully projects in today’s turbulent environment. Executed under the harshest and most unpredictable conditions, these projects are great sources for learning about how to manage unexpected and unforeseen situations as they occur. This book presents multiple case studies of managing extreme events as they happened during polar, mountain climbing, military, and rescue expeditions. A boat accident in the Artic is a lesson on how an effective project manager must be ambidextrous: on one hand able to follow plans and on the other hand able to abandon those plans when disaster strikes and improvise new ones in response. Polar expeditions also illustrate how a team can use "weak links" to go beyond its usual information network to acquire strategic information. Fire and rescues operations illustrate how one team member’s knowledge can be transferred to the entire team. Military operations provide case material on how teams coordinate and make use of both individual and collective competencies. This groundbreaking work pushes the definitions of a project and project management to reveal new insight that benefits researchers, academics, and the practitioners managing projects in today’s challenging and uncertain times.

Today, less than a third of projects deliver their specified business benefits on time and within budget. Nearly 20% of all projects fail outright, and under-delivery of benefits on the average project is as high as 50%. Acutely aware of this and without understanding the root causes of the problem, organizations are busy advancing capabilities and investing in methodologies and processes that increase complexity, but just deliver more failure. Using examples and lessons learned from high-risk environments where the price of project failure is death, this innovative and captivating guide provides powerful insights into the root causes of project failure and how to manage them. This essential reference for business leaders, portfolio owners, project and program managers, business analysts, and risk managers, explores the drivers of risk in projects, the relationship between our ambitions and our abilities, and provides pragmatic real-world solutions to this constancy of project failure that readers can apply directly to their organization.

The 5th Edition of Jack Marchewka's Information Technology Project Management focuses on how to create measurable organizational value (MOV) through IT projects. The author uses the concept of MOV, combined with his own research, to create a solid foundation for making decisions throughout the project's lifecycle. The book's integration of project management and IT concepts provides students with the tools and techniques they need to develop in this field.

Leaders extol the value of pursuing challenging goals, but evidence suggests that this leads to disaster as often as success. Drawing upon real-life stories, including the Mount Everest Climbing Disaster, the author shows how destructive goal pursuit can cause the breakdown of learning in teams and calls for rethinking the role of the leader.

This new edition of Project Risk Management Guidelines has been fully updated to include the new international standards, ISO 31000 Risk management and IEC 62198 Managing risk in projects. The book explains the standards and how they can be applied. It provides a clear introduction to basic project risk management, introduces the reader to specialized areas of projects and procurement, and shows how quantitative risk analysis methods can be used in large projects. Chapter by chapter, the authors present simple, practical steps and illustrate them with examples drawn from their extensive experience from around the world, in many different industry sectors and cultures and at all stages of projects from conception through development and into execution. Qualitative and quantitative approaches are covered. Traditional structures and processes are discussed as well as developments in the way projects are conducted, such as outsourcing arrangements and risk-sharing structures like public–private partnerships. Improved outcomes can be achieved when sound risk management is used to capture opportunities and reduce threats. Its unique focus and wealth of checklists, tables and other resources make this book an essential and enduring tool for anyone involved with project work.