Do you have the "perfect project?"
Don't be so sure...

 

R.M.S. Titanic was considered by many, including its designers and builders to be an unsinkable ship. With redundant safety systems that used the latest emerging technologies of the day, the ship was considered so safe that it did not even need a full complement of lifeboats. Yet, a collision with an iceberg put an end to the ship on its maiden voyage and led to the deaths of thousands of passengers and crew. The sinking of Titanic is one of the worst maritime disasters ever.

Titanic Lessons for IT Projects analyzes the project that designed, built, and launched the ship, showing how compromises made during early project stages led to serious flaws in this supposedly "perfect ship." In addition, the book explains how major mistakes during the early days of the ship's operations led to the disaster. All of these disasterous compromises and mistakes were fully avoidable.

Author Mark Kozak-Holland shows how the lessons learned from the disaster can be applied to IT projects today. In modern IT projects, we often have situations where we believe that we have designed, built, or launched a "perfect" solution. Kozak-Holland juxtaposes the Titanic story and modern IT projects so that we can learn from the disaster and avoid making similar mistakes.

Entertaining and full of intriguing historical details, the book helps project managers and IT executives see the impact of decisions similar to the ones that they make every day. An easy read full of illustrations and photos to help explain the story and to help drive home some simple lessons.

This new book was based upon an earlier book in the series -- On-time, On-line, On-budget: Titanic Lessons for e-business Executives. Where the previous book uses modern, complex IT techniques (such as interdependency modeling) to perform its analysis, Titanic Lessons for IT Projects focuses more on the Titanic story and makes its points more accessible to a broader audience.

Learn from the Past

Titanic Lessons for IT Projects is from the Lessons from History series. These books have been written for organizations applying today's business and technology techniques to common business problems. The series uses relevant historical case studies to examine how historical projects and emerging technologies of the past solved complex problems. It then draws comparisons to challenges encountered in today's projects.

As the author behind the Lessons from History series, Mark Kozak-Holland brings years of experience as a consultant who helps Fortune-500 companies formulate projects that leverage emerging technologies. Since 1985 he has been straddling the business and IT worlds making these projects happen. He is a certified business consultant, the author of several books, and a noted speaker. As a historian, Kozak-Holland seeks out the wisdom of the past to help others avoid repeating mistakes and to capture time-proven techniques. His lectures on the Titanic project have been very popular at gatherings of project managers and CIOs.

What are People Saying about This Book?

The following reviews were posted on Gantthead.com:

The [book] was wonderful and fit together like a puzzle. Using the Titanic as an analogy is a great hook as well as teaching tool. (January 22, 2004)

This is totally on the mark! (January 30, 2004 )

I just read over all [of this book] and found it excellent. Many of us have ofter referred to the Titanic in working on projects, we now see how close we were. The lessons learned from this tragety can be applied to projects today. (September 18, 2004)

My congratulations go to the the author on a riveting [ebook]. I was glued to the screen, reading each part to discover ‘what happened at the end’. If [he is] in PM, maybe [he is] in the wrong trade. An excellent read. (May 24, 2005)

Need More Information?

Still trying to make up your mind? To find out more about Titanic Lessons for IT Projects, use the links below to get additional FREE information on this book:

Table of Contents The Table of Contents from the book (HTML)
Introduction The Introduction from the book (PDF)
Reviews Reviews and Endorsements of the book's predecessor (HTML)

 

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160 pages, paperback

Titanic Lessons for IT Projects

by Mark Kozak-Holland

 

Buy Directly from the Publisher: $27.96 (USD) paperback

The earlier book that Titanic Lessons for IT Projects was based upon had a retail price of $59. At under half the price of the original, this book highlights the same lessons in a more readable format.

Or, Save Even More and Buy the eBook version for only $17.95

Titanic Lessons for IT Projects is also available in the following electronic formats:

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Papberback book, 160 pages
ISBN 1895186269
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ISBN 1895186234
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