Mike Barnato

People now know more about project management. But projects still fail. And big time. Why?

What can we learn from Noah, the first project manager? His project was challenging, to say the least. It was mission critical, because without it the world would end. It had an immovable deadline. He could not say ‘ sorry the ark will be ready the day after the flood’.

Why did he succeed? Noah had a great vision and was clear on scope and output. He combined the idea of a floating boarding kennel and a get-away-from-it-all cruise. Noah was an effective leader, planner and communicator. He understood the significance of the dove with leaf in its beak. He inspected progress regularly and set simple rules – only two of each species. Noah understood the risks and the importance of change management - he had the strongest project sponsor of all and got specialist advice from an authoritative source.

Compare what happened with the Tower of Babel. A confused purpose. No clear plan. No clear idea who was responsible for what. And all built on poor foundations.

And how is your project coming along? There is nothing Babel-like about it, is there?

Picture by bhollar