9

Project Adaptation

Dealing with What You Cannot Anticipate

Key Topics Covered in This Chapter

  • Three sources of unanticipated project risk
  • How management inflexibility on budgets and deadlines has led to disastrous surprises
  • A model for adaptive project management—and when to apply it

IN WARFARE , initial battle plans begin falling apart with the first skirmishes. Combatants are forced to respond to moves that were not—or could not—have been anticipated. Challenges and opportunities reveal themselves as events play out. Big, complex projects—even those that are well planned—experience something very similar. Customer requirements change even as the project team is working to satisfy them; the team discovers that it is aiming at a moving target. ...

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