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SUMMER 2008 THE TRUTH ABOUT TIME Brian Dean of Anxiety Culture says time management systems and scheduling destroy the spirit and don’t work anyway

SCHEDULING: A WASTE OF TIME? ¶ In the 1820s, when George Stephenson’s Liverpool-to-Manchester railway went behind schedule and over budget by 45%, everyone involved could be excused, as the discipline known as project management hadn’t yet been invented. In the intervening 180years, managing projects has become an industry in its own right—but time and cost overruns are still the norm:

•-A 2006National Audit Office review of 20large UKdefence

projects found a total delay of 36years—an average of one year, nine months per project. •-An international study on the management of public projects,

published in 2002, found that almost nine out of ten projects went over budget, with overruns of 50–100% common. •-71% of ITprojects go behind schedule, over budget and/

or under scope, according to a 2004industry study by the Standish Group. •-75% of UKgovernment building projects are completed late and

over budget, according to a 2001BBC report. [Sources: National Audit Office’s ‘Ministry of Defence: Major Projects Report 2006’, 24/11/2006; ‘Underestimating Costs in Public Works’, Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 68, No. 3, Summer 2002; ‘CHAOSReport 2004’, The Standish Group; BBC Radio 4‘Today’, 11/1/2001]

UNDERESTIMATING BY BILLIONS ¶ The public ends up paying billions for projects which are either cancelled or which would never have received the go-ahead if the true cost had been known from the start:

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