Title Avoiding Project Disaster “Titanic Lessons for IT Executives.doc

PMF Book Review Book Title: Avoiding Project Disasters  “Titanic Lessons for IT Executives” Author: Mark Kozak-Holland Publisher: Multi-Media Publications, Inc. List Price: $ 44.95 USD (eBook: $ 29.95 USD) Copyright: 2006 Reviewer: René Le Bel Review Date: October 2006 Introduction to the Book: Avoiding Project Disasters parallels today’s hubris of IT practices against the hubris surrounding the building, marketing and operation of the cruise liner named Titanic. The book is targeted at senior level management needing a resource to understand key IT project issues. The author Mark Kozak-Holland, a history buff and IT consultant in emerging technologies has written a user-friendly book with chapter objectives, conclusions and extensive appendices. Summary of Review: The author presents the market conditions for transatlantic travel, social environment at the beginning of the twentieth century and the tremendous impact the sinking of the Titanic had on people’s regard for the invincibility of technology. Today this tragedy is still a powerful metaphor for our civilization, as the author points out the sinking marked the end of an era. Many people today view the sinking as simply a case of bad luck or even bad technology. At the time of the tragedy, blame was laid on the brittle metal used for the hull. However the author makes a very strong case arguing the ship was flawed early in the planning stage by decisions to place the grandeur of the first class passengers’ experience above basic safety design. The author points out how the luxurious design compromised safety at several points in the planning stage. Today’s IT industry has not had this kind of “Titanic-like” disaster. However there have been many serious accidents caused by faulty planning, programming and execution. In this book the examples of IT disaster fall more into the hiccup category as opposed to “Titanesque”. The author documents the numerous mistakes made in p