Thinking outside the camp

A potentially grim new business book: Project Lessons from the Great Escape (Stalag Luft III)

While you might think your project plan is perfect, would you bet your life on it? In World War II, a group of 220 captured airmen did just that -- they staked the lives of everyone in the camp on the success of a project to secretly build a series of tunnels out of a prison camp their captors thought was escape proof. The prisoners formally structured their work as a project, using the project organization techniques of the day. This book analyzes their efforts using modern project management methods and the nine knowledge areas of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Learn from the successes and mistakes of a project where people really put their lives on the line.

Another (actual) title in the series: Avoiding Project Disaster: Titanic Lessons for IT Executives.

Coming soon:

• For Every Problem there is a Final Solution: Lessons from the Holocaust
• Sell 'Em All (And Let Accounting Sort 'Em Out): Lessons from the My Lai Massacre
• Higher Ground: Lessons from the Tsunami.