文档介绍：Planning in the Dark: Why Major Engineering Projects Fail to Achieve Key Goals
Prof. Philip Lawrence
Aerospace Research Centre
UWE Bristol
Tel. 44 1173443630
Fax. 44 117344 2734
Email philip.******@
Prof. Jim Scanlan
Computational Engineering and Design Research Group
School of Engineering Sciences
University of Southampton
Tel: (office) 02380 592369
Fax: 02380 594813
Email .******@
Paper Submitted for Publication to the Journal of Technology Assessment and Strategic Management
Abstract
The arguments, analysis and observations in this paper are based on 10 years of research with partners in the European and US aerospace and defence industries. During this period the authors were part of a team of researchers at Bristol UWE, Southampton University and Rolls-Royce PLC, who were seeking to develop a new methodology and tool set for project management, particularly aimed at large aerospace projects.
The research was motivated by the seemingly ubiquitous reality of project failure, with large engineering projects apparently always late and over budget. Here we focus on aerospace and defence, but the problems are generic across all branches of engineering. In our view aerospace and defence have more excuses than most, because not only are the projects huge, they are also globally distributed and plex.
As our work progressed a fundamental conundrum emerged. As we talked to project managers and assessed the teams that were undertaking the projects it became obvious that they were well educated, intelligent, highly motivated and very capable people. So why were so many projects going wrong? Soon we could see that projects were going wrong in all sectors and in many different countries. So obviously the problems were not to do with petence, as they clearly were so generic. Our ultimate finding has been that the very technology available for managing projects today is inadequate. As we argue below, modern, complex projects cannot b