How Big Things Get Done Paperback – 16 February 2023

A fascinating book that you MUST read.While the essence is Project Management and its best practices that the learned (and accomplished author) has painstakingly researched, there is deep wisdom in the book.Nuggets!The project was called California High-Speed Rail. It would connect two of the world’s great cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, along with Silicon Valley, the global capital of high technology. And for a total cost of $33 billion it would be ready to roll by 2020. As I write, it is now fourteen years later.Cost estimates soared, to $43 billion, $68 billion, $77 billion, then almost $83 billion. As I write, the current highest estimate is $100 billion. But the truth is that nobody knows what the full, final cost will be.They knew how many windows Empire State would have, how many blocks of limestone, and of what shapes and sizes, how many tons of aluminum and stainless steel, tons of cement, tons of mortar. Even before it was begun, Empire State was finished entirely—on paper.The Empire State Building had been estimated to cost $50 million. It actually cost $41 millionIn total, only 8.5 percent of projects hit the mark on both cost and time. And a minuscule 0.5 percent nail cost, time, and benefits. Or to put that another way, 91.5 percent of projects go over budget, over schedule, or both And 99.5 percent of projects go over budget, over schedule, under benefits, or some combination of these.The pattern was so clear that I started calling it the “Iron Law of Megaprojects”: over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over againAnother IT blowout happened to the legendary jeans maker Levi Strauss: Originally forecast to cost $5 million, the project forced the company to take a $200 million loss and show its CIO the doorPlanning is a safe harbor. Delivery is venturing across the storm-tossed seas.In France, there is often a theoretical budget that is given because it is the sum that politically has been released to do something.In three out of four cases this sum does not correspond to anything in technical terms. This is a budget that was made because it could be accepted politically. The real price comes later.I once asked an engineer why their cost estimates were invariably underestimated and he simply answered, ‘if we gave the true expected outcome costs nothing would be built.’”Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said that if he had five minutes to chop down a tree, he’d spend the first three sharpening the ax.Incredible stories about The Pentagon, Pixar, Steve Job's failure, and many other well known brands, businesses and publicly visible projects!

Well written. Very lucid despite all the research that has obviously gone into it.

Must read for project managers.

Its a great learning experience for any body who is confounded by big projects with their unique challenges of cost overruns delays and loss of utility in the end. Go for it, you will learn a lot.

Have been reading Prof. Flyvberg's research articles on how and Why Mega-projects Fail since 2006. Very impressed with this book by him that gives explanations but also actionable advice to practitioners. Highly recommended!

The author shares real life case studies of various projects across the world. Also provides simple ideas that can be used to transform in your personal life and projects. A wonderful book.

Practical book with lots of example.

Was a very easy read , was able to finish in 2 days. Every piece is explained as a story. Excellent case studies on both sides of arguments. Key take aways Think slow and act fast as our mind is not evolving to do creative thinking, getting your team right is very important, experience is underrated as a lot of complexity cannot be defined ex you can never teach how to ride a bicycle in terms of steps , break the project to the lowest level like legos and then do specific benchmarks and don't say my project is unique, better to fail small than directly going big , always take the outside view , constantly watch out for risks and build bridges.