Abstract

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 super-human effort to resuscitate or die an untimely death. Great Lessons in Project Management is a treasure trove of lessons learned from troubled projects—and from projects that went well. This collection of stories describes the events surrounding a particular challenge a project manager faced or a tool that another used effectively. Project managers of all types of projects can draw on these stories to validate their own good practices and to avoid the pitfalls so many have encountered on their projects. David Pratt, PMP, has more than 20 years of experience managing projects of all types and sizes, in a wide variety of industries as well as in non-profit and service organizations. A retired military officer and hospital administrator, he currently owns DHP Project Services, LLC. Dave is the author of The IT Project Management Answer Book and Pragmatic Project Management: Five Scalable Steps to Success. He currently teaches project management at South Puget Sound Community College in Lacey, Washington, where he led the curriculum design effort for the Project Management Certificate program.