9: The Maiden Voyage Ends

The chapter begins by reviewing the lessons in the earlier chapters and asserting that the reader is now "able to assess your overall IT project." (EN: I cannot agree - the book has provided scant information about project management, and has been more on topics related to risk management in IT projects, which is important but not at all comprehensive.)

To this, he adds random information:

• A bad decision early on can lead to a lot of problems later (and you may not recognize the decision as bad until later on)
• It is not feasible for a project manager to micromanage a project, merely to coordinate the effort of others who do the detail work and ensure they stay on track with the "vision" and high-level goals
• Complacency is the greatest risk. If you take it for granted that everything will work as planned, you won't be prepared when it doesn't.
• Tasks of testing and monitoring are often cut to save budget and time because they seem inessential. This leads to costly disasters.
• Pushing systems beyond their designed capacities is also a common practice, to save the expense of adding capacity. This too is risky.
• There is far less tolerance for problems now than ever before. If a system goes offline for a day, it doesn't merely inconvenience a few employees, but brings a business to its knees.
• Where business pressures override sound operational decisions, catastrophic problems are bound to occur (EN: and politically, the people who have been marginalized and overridden are often made scapegoat in the aftermath)

In closing, the author summarizes the lesson: the success of a project relies on careful planning, sound decision-making, considering the consequences, and being prepared for contingencies.