Preface
Projects fail at an alarming rate, whether they are information technology, training, construction, or policy development projects. No matter the focus, each year we experience an abundance of challenged projects that either require superhuman effort to resuscitate or die an untimely death.
A library of lessons learned from troubled projects—and from projects that went well—would go a long way toward enabling us to achieve more success with our own projects. Imagine a collection of stories that describe the events surrounding a particular challenge a project manager faced or a tool that another used effectively. It would be a virtual treasure trove of experiences that project managers of all types of projects could draw on to validate their own good practices and to avoid the pitfalls experienced by others.
Great Lessons Learned in Project Management is a first attempt to gather lessons learned from projects over several decades. Most of the stories in this book relate my own experiences working as a project manager or providing external quality assurance services for projects that were not directly under my control.
Over the past 10 years, my career efforts have been focused on resurrecting damaged or failing projects, either through my own efforts as a project manager or by providing oversight and mentoring to others managing projects. This book describes many of those efforts, all of which ended successfully. My hope is that readers will benefit from the lessons learned and thereby avoid some of the stumbling points and pitfalls so many have encountered on their projects. If it saves one project, the time it took me to write this book will have been worth the investment.
Three of the lessons-learned stories in this book were contributed by other project management professionals. Their insights offer a perspective different from my own. I have known each of the contributors for many years and can attest to their professionalism and expertise; they are seasoned project managers who understand and appreciate tried-and-true project management practices.
My vision for this book is that it will grow over the years through contributions from other project management professionals who provide their own perspectives on their project management experiences and the lessons they learned along the way. To that end, I invite anyone interested to submit well-crafted, timely lessons-learned stories in the full context of their unique situations. Perhaps this book can become a living, growing document that will provide value over many years for project managers in all areas of endeavor.
As we manage projects that provide necessary, unique products, services, and results to those we serve, I hope you will benefit from the stories and experiences captured in this book. Consider the lessons learned by those who have gone before you and recognize your own experiences as lessons learned. Then pay your experiences forward to those who might benefit from your hard-earned insights. Our discipline needs you and all that you can do to improve the services we deliver to our employers and clients.
—Dave Pratt, PMP
Dave.DHP@comcast.net
