Book Titles

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

By Bent Flyvbjerg, Dan Gardner

Year Published: 2023
ISBN-13: 978-0593239513
Categories: Failure, Management, Projects

75 Quotes Found

Quote Image Quote Page Number

How Big Things Get Done:

Projects are not goals in themselves. Projects are how goals are achieved.

050

How Big Things Get Done:

…projects have to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.

050

How Big Things Get Done:

…it’s a serious mistake to treat planning as an exercise in abstract, bureaucratic thought and calculation.

052

How Big Things Get Done:

We’re good at learning by tinkering – which is fortunate, because we’re terrible at getting things right the first time.

052

How Big Things Get Done:

A good plan is one that meticulously applies experimentation or experience. A great plan is one that rigorously applies both.

053

How Big Things Get Done:

…a highly iterative process… is worth the extraordinary work it entails…

073

How Big Things Get Done:

Try, learn, again. Whatever the project or the technology, it’s the most effective path to a plan that delivers.

079

How Big Things Get Done:

Age reflects time, and time enables experience.

080

How Big Things Get Done:

…we do not make the most of experience because we do not appreciate how deeply experience can enrich judgment and improve project planning and leadership.

081

How Big Things Get Done:

…experience is what elevates the best project leaders… above the rest.

091