How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between
Bent Flyvbjerg
The secrets to successfully planning and delivering projects on any scale—from home renovation to space exploration—by the world’s leading expert on megaprojects “This book is important, timely, instructive, and entertaining. What more could you ask for. ”—Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize–winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow “Over-budget and over-schedule is an inevitability. more
304 pages, Hardcover
First published Crown Currency
4.34
Rating
2988
Ratings
313
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Bent Flyvbjerg
11 books 61 followers
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Whoa. That was incredible. Easy to understand, backed by data. Oh the data, how I loved it. This was a book telling stories backed by data (this database of large projects he’s created is just awesome), instead of so many other books in this topic that tell a story and try to somehow make the data fit the story. more
An approachable read highlighting the necessary factors of successful projects that come in on time and under budget. The book changed my perspective on the best ways to make decisions in both my personal and professional life. more
How Big Things Get Done (2023) by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner is about Flyvbjerg’s area of expertise, that of large projects and their success rates. The book starts by describing how the record of big projects is worse than people think. Flyvbjerg has built up a database of 16,000 projects that details how projects typically end up. The incredible result is :“In total, only 8. 5 percent of projects hit the mark on both cost and time. more
Based on practical experience and empirical analysis, Flyvberg offers a model for seeing through the delivery of mega projects. The catch phrase is “think slow act fast. ” The elements include the following. “Right to left planning”: have clarity on the big picture goal and plan through backward induction. “Pixar planning”: use low stakes pilot tests and high resolution models to get all the details right. more
Brilliant book with inspiring stories that takes traditional project management into the realm of modern, agile management. more
A must read for anyone who works on or is interested in large-scale projects. Flyvbjerg reversed my strong-held belief in moving quickly in order to “fail fast. ” His nuanced explanation of thinking slow and acting fast is a personal game changer in managing schedule, cost, and risk. He covers tons of other key principles on how to effectively deliver large projects. . more
If a project can be delivered in a modular manner, enabling learning along the way, it is likely to succeed. - Think from left to right- Think slow, act fast- Maximize experience and experimentation- Reduce the window of doom- Your project isn't as unique as you think- Use the right anchors for estimates (reference class forecasting)- Big is best built from small. more
Først og fremst: klarer kunststykket å støtte seg på statistikk og data men samtidig være lettlest. Helt tydelig at mannen har kunnskap i bøtter og spann om megaprosjekter, der står han fjellstøtt. Mye bra lærdom å ta med seg, spesielt i viktigheten av et godt forarbeid (think slow, then act fast). Har et parti i boka hvor han trekker frem et privat oppussingsprosjekt for å vise at dette er universelle prinsipper som gjelder for alle typer prosjekter. Får litt følelsen av at det er klemt inn for å gi den jevne leser noe å relatere til, men la gå. more
WSJ's positive review:https://www. wsj. com/articles/how-big-. (Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers) Excerpt:"Mr. more
if The Title Grabs YouThis book delivers a fantastic insight into building mega projects. It is must reading for any local government official who’s jurisdiction is planning any sizable project, like mine, a new county courthouse. more
Started reading this a couple of months ago and finally finished it…Flyvbjerg has a huge reputation in the field, and I was looking forward to finding more about the years of empirical research that has gone into his study of mega projects. You get bits of it (in the chapter on modular projects and the extent to which they reduce tail risk), but the best visualised example is in the appendix which shows how cost overruns fall across different project types and where extreme tail risk lies. The fact that those examples are buried basically proves his core point - it’s a lot more lucrative and easier to selectively tell stories, rather than do real empirical analysis. He even does this himself, comparing development of the Sydney Opera House to, predictably, Pixar. Overall there’s enough real insight in here to make it a four star book, but it’s a bit of an indictment about how even people who read books like this engage with evidence that he clearly concluded he needed to make it more of a middle-era Niall Ferguson book than a serious piece of analysis. more
Very insighful. I probably will read it a couple more times. . more
Absolute cracker of a book. Couldn’t put it down. Like Cal Newport’s Deep Work, this packs pretty much all you need to know into a small handful of pages. Its width does not betray its depth. It’s part Taleb and Kahnemann, part Deming and Ohno, and very, VERY Danish. more
Surprising how capital ends up wasted due to short-term thinking. Most of the mega projects are big follies. more
This is a book for anyone who has watched a large project go south: over budget, behind schedule, and flush with finger-pointing. Combining data gathered over decades from hundreds of large projects with insights compiled from projects in disparate industries, the reader gains a deep understanding of the pitfalls the confront project managers around the world. While application of the espoused principles may not be as simple as they come across in the book, they are definitively applicable. . more
Don’t rush into things, make a well execute plan, and your kitchen renovation will go over budget. That’s the entire book - none of which felt surprising. I gave it an extra star because it wasn’t painful to read, just kind of pointless. There is also only 190ish pages of content - the rest is notes, appendixes and the author telling the reader to read more of his books. I’m glad it wasn’t longer, but I feel like I got ripped off. more
Finished early due to a bout of insomnia. This an essential resource for anyone involved in project management, by somebody who (quite literally) wrote the book. It leans heavily on two other works, namely The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, which I've read, and Thinking, Fast and Slow, which I haven't. It makes use of lessons drawn from both to make its own point, which can be loosely summed up as: Measure twice, cut once. But it's much more than that. more
HIGHLY recommend for anyone in construction aindustry, or even anyone considering that "light" home remodelling project: Fascinating insights from someone who has studied mega construction projects and learned that no less than 92% of them come in over budget or over schedule, or both. For example, the cost of California’s high-speed rail project soared from $33 billion to $100 billon—and won’t even go where promised. Author's insights are very helpful whether you're building the next big project, thinking about that "small” home remodelling job, developing a Hollywood movie, or simply undertaking anything that you think will cost X dollars and take Y time but has potential for spiralling out of control on both fronts. Pro tip takeaway: keep asking about the “why” you’re gonna invest a lot of time, money and effort into any project BEFORE you start it. Helps prevent you from falling victim to the sunken cost mental trap where you keep the project going simply because, well, you’ve already spent so much time and money on it anyway up to this point so might as well keep on going. more
Drawing on a database of over 16,000 projects in 136 countries, the authors answer the questions: What works. What doesn’t work. Why. Better managing projects is a priority for governments due to the challenges they face in servicing the debt that pays for many of these projects. Debt servicing by the poorest countries as a proportion of revenues is up nearly three times since 2011. more
I enjoyed this as an audio book so much that I am going to re-read it in print. The author focuses on "Think Slow to Move Fast" and has a strong emphasis on using data for determining how to best plan a project in a specific reference class. He is rather the anti- "Malcolm Gladwell" -- opposing manipulation of data just to support your ends. Think through all the things that can go wrong. Get as much meaningful data as you can. more
A clear eyed, compelling, and concisely written analysis on how projects of virtually any size miss their targets and deadlines. They say “in God we trust, all else bring data” and the author delivers. Besides being a project manager himself, Flyvbjerg has combed the globe and amassed a database of projects along with their all too common failures. What emerges is a set of case studies ranging from kitchen renovations to nuclear reactor construction. And lest you think he’s building a case out of a few salient examples, he backs up everything he says with numbers. more
Essential reading for people involved in… getting big things done. Well written, crisp. Explained through examples that are very interesting, and in some cases, unfortunately, all too common. I hadn’t heard of him before, or of the *fact* that most projects suffer from unconscionable cost overruns and delays, but I guess that’s because no one wants to discuss project fixing. People enjoy setting deadlines and expecting results, with as little planning as they can get away with. more
Eye opening. As a tax payer, the explanation on the cost overruns are clear, simple and straightforward. As a professional working in business planning and project management, the points made by the author hit close to my hearth. We encounter these fallacies everyday and the book gives a great intellectual framework to frame then. Definitely a required reading for anyone wanting to get involved in planning. more
Well written and comprehensive guide why we usually fail at big projects from kitchen renovation to building a nuclear power plant. Extra star for approaching a very technical but important topic in clear and understandable fashion. What the author describes in the book as main causes of project failures matches perfectly with my experience of evaluating large rail projects at the Slovak Ministry of Finance. . more
About 30 pages of wisdom stretched into 200. The author had some examples of project management going good/bad that were interesting to learn about, but beyond that the lessons weren’t all that groundbreaking. The tie between lessons learned from large infrastructure projects and application to personal life was also pretty weak. Either the application piece needed to be expanded upon or all the focus should have stayed on case studies. Typical pitfalls of a half-baked self help book. more
Reference class forecasting - be still my beating heart. A real banger of a book - and a must read for officials delivering big and small projects alike. Three key takeaways - ask why you're doing something - what's the outcome you want to achieve, and work back from there; spend way longer than you think planning and getting your ideas refined by others to a very granular level; use the right reference class and don't think you're special/unique. more
This just hit the spot for me - accessible, practical lessons in megaproject management with great examples that contrast and compare the possible approaches. The Brisbane Olympics is approaching very quickly, and I think we would do well to learn as many lessons as possible from people like this. more
An easy read, backed up by quantitative and qualitative data. Do I agree with the author in every aspect. Definitely not. Did I still learn a lot from the book that I can apply in my own projects. Definitely yes. more
vynikajuca knizka od danskeho profesora o tom ako, kolko a aj preco vedia ist velke aj male projekty do horibilnych nakladov casovych aj penaznych. zaroven dava rady ako mitigovat vsetky mozne rizika a na co sa zamerat, kopou dat podlozene aj s realnymi prikladmi. more
Rarely a book can bring some aha moments. This one delivered so many. Definitely exceeded my expectations. It’s a book for anybody who wants to start a project to better estimate timings and costs. I’m recommending it to everybody I know . more