Weather is getting better, so I will also do a summer book post.
‘How Big Things Get Done’ by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner, and ‘The Worlds Worst Warships’ by Antony Preston. Both take an interesting, readable and enjoyable look at mega projects and how they succeed or fail. Flyvbjerg and Gardner look forward at how we can do better; Preston’s view is more historical, but at a complex subject “…which encompasses engineering, economics, sociology , and even psychology”, with outcomes that may be ridiculous, often tragic and sometimes change the path of history.
As an IT manager of people and projects I particularly enjoyed these books because they provide an outside perspective on the challenges I meet in my daily work, including that IT projects aren’t worse or better than others (actually it depends: Flyvbjerg and Gardner got statistics).
Next up in my reading list in non-fiction must be ‘In Search of Stupidity’ by Merrill Chapman which is now out in a 3rd edition, with a fresh look at the latest mistakes within technology marketing.
This was first posted on LinkedIn