The Center for Project Management in San Ramon, California, examined 24 IT projects and compiled a list of ten dumb mistakes. The center then presented this list to 50 conference attendees and asked them to grade their organization on each mistake. The average grade was between a C+ and D. Here are the ten mistakes:
1. Mistaking every half-baked idea for a viable project.
2. Overlooking stakeholders, forgetting the champions, and ignoring the nemesis.
3. Not assessing the project’s complexity.
4. Not developing a comprehensive project charter.
5. Not developing a comprehensive project plan.
6. Not designing a functional project organization.
7. Accepting or developing unrealistic or unachievable estimates.
8. Accepting status reports that contain mostly noise and not enough signal.
9. Looking back and not ahead.
10. Not following a robust project process architecture.
Read the above list and find an example of a project for which this is the case. The project can be one that you have personal experience with or that you have read or heard about. Describe the example and state which of the mistakes was made with respect to the project.
