Chapter 12

Closing Projects

“History repeats itself. That’s one of thethings wrong with history.”—CLARENCE DARROW

Reviewing the records of technical projects, it is striking how many consecutive projects fall victim to the same problems. Common issues such as inadequate staffing, top-down imposed deadlines that have nothing to do with the work, fixed commitments based on little or no analysis, and many other issues listed in the PERIL database plague project after project. One definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over, hoping for a different result. More than a little risk in most projects is a direct result of using the same methods for projects that have caused problems in the past.

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