Managing Very Large Projects: The Wrong People

by Ken Orr

In most areas of human endeavor, if you're going to take on a project that is likely to cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and that will have an enormous effect on an organization, you must insist that the project leader has extensive experience working on a similar project. Moreover, you will check credentials, and closely. You expect the project leader to have a professional license and to have worked in the field for an extensive period. Because the ramp-up for very large projects (VLPs) is often rushed because of a fixed deadline, people frequently forgo this process when it comes to large IT projects, which leads to major problems.