IT Project Lessons from Titanic (Part 3)

IT Project Lessons from Titanic (Part 3) Mark Kozak-Holland October 20, 2003

Project Management PM 101 Applying PM Principles Advice, Anecdotes and Case Studies

Most people are very familiar with Titanic's story from movies or documentaries that focus on the last two days of the voyage and the last hours of the disaster itself. But little is known about the four-year construction project, the project stages and their significance in the disaster.

Let us go back to 1909 and re-examine White Star's project to build three super liners based on new emerging technologies. These were major investments as the liners were likely to be in service for at least 20 years based on what appeared to be a solid business case, but in fact did not cover the risks adequately (see Part 2).

Titanic's architects had many design choices and from the outset they followed a business strategy to maximize passenger comfort rather than speed of passage.