Project Management, Denial, and the Death Zone ― Lessons from Everest and Antarctica

Project success rates haven't changed in 20 years.Learn why, and what you can do to improve them in your organization. Today, less than a third of projects deliver their specified business benefits on time and within budget. Nearly 20% of all projects fail outright, and under-delivery of benefits on the average project is as high as 50%. Acutely aware of this and without understanding the root causes of the problem, organizations are busy advancing capabilities and investing in methodologies and processes that increase complexity, but just deliver more failure.Using examples and lessons learned from high-risk environments where the price of project failure is death, this innovative and captivating guide provides powerful insights into the root causes of project failure and how to manage them. Key Features ‧ Explains the epidemic of project failure, risk homeostasis, the principle of outcome maximizing, and the emerging concept of risk appetite, including the importance of its application to project management and how to apply it ‧ Introduces a new project management concept called the CORA triangle that focuses on achieving balance in the management of Capabilities, Outcomes, and Risk Appetite ‧ Discusses the extreme risks that complexity can create in projects and how to reduce them, as well as advice on and how to achieve project management maturity

Grant Avery, PMP, is a leading expert and international speaker on the subject of risk, quality assurance, business cases, and capability maturity models in project and program management. Mr. Avery has reviewed or overseen the quality, risk and success assurance of over $20 billion of high-risk projects and programs in New Zealand and Australian public and private sectors, including over 100 ICT-enabled business change projects. He is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Certified Registered Consultant in Project and Program Management and P3M3 capability maturity assessments, with an MBA of Distinction from Victoria University, New Zealand.