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Project-based work has become a critical component of global industrial activity. Among other functions, projects are used to develop new products and services, improve operations flows, implement innovative information technologies, and conduct primary R&D. At the same time, project management is a core skill requirement for numerous corporations worldwide hoping to harness a means of improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. Unfortunately, the track record for project development has not been strong. Data suggest that within various industrial components, such as IT, failure rates for projects are high; even 'successful' examples typically run well over budget and behind schedule. This article addresses some of the reasons why projects and project management have failed to live up to lofty expectations, arguing that the seeds of failure are often sown from the outset through flawed project planning. Citing the more common errors in human judgment and drawing on numerous examples, we offer guidelines by which project planning can begin to work as it was intended: on behalf of the project rather than at cross-purposes with the project's goals.

Project management techniques have met with widespread acceptance as a means of expediting product development, making efficient use of resources, and stimulating cross-functional communication. Not only manufacturing firms, but also legal offices, hospitals, and local governments have accepted project management as an indispensable part of their operations. Yet failures and outright disasters abound in the history of project management. A study of these failures indicates a dozen sure-fire methods for dooming a project: ignore its environment; push a new technology to market too quickly; don't bother to build in fallback options; when problems occur, shoot the person most visible; let new ideas starve to death from inertia; don't bother conducting feasibility studies; never, ever admit a project is a failure; micromanage the project managers and their teams; never, ever conduct post-failure audits; never try to understand project trade-offs; let politics dictate crucial project decisions; and make sure the project is run by a weak leader. However, past failure need not discourage us from future efforts. Indeed, it is through these past failures that we gain the savvy to push on to successful ventures.

The expanded use of project management techniques is not always met by a concomitant increase in the pool of competent project managers. Senior managers readily acknowledge the ad hoc manner in which most project managers acquire their skills, but are unsure how better to develop a supply of well-trained project leaders for the future. Over the last several years, we have conducted interviews with dozens of senior project managers asking the question: "What information were you never given as a novice product manager that, in retrospect, could have made your job easier?" From the responses, we offer some rules as a useful means of understanding the challenge project managers face and some ways to address these concerns: understand the unique context of project management; recognize project team conflict as progress; understand who the stakeholders are and what they want; accept and use the political nature of organizations; understand what "success" means, operationally; remember that enthusiasm and despair are both infectious; build and maintain a cohesive team; and use time carefully, or it will use you.