From the construction of a new hangar to the launch of a new product range, or even the reorganization of a company, project management plays a fundamental role. Far from being an option, it's necessary to respect the budgetary, temporal, social and environmental constraints your organization faces.

But sometimes things go wrong.

Let's start with a charade: my construction was supposed to cost 2.4 billion euros, largely paid for by the taxpayer, and last 4 years. In the end, it cost over 7 billion (and counting!) and my inauguration took place 14 years after work began. And who am I?

You guessed it, Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt airport ("BER" for those in the know), intended to replace those at Tegel and Schönefeld.

This is where the essential elements of a failed project come into play: lack of vision (cf. the rabbit in the illustration!), lack of leadership, lack of communication, and more if affinity.

One of the harbingers of disaster was the addition and adaptation of ideas relating to the new structure when work had already begun, all in an environment with little or no coordination. If you change an element at point A without notifying B, even though B depends on A, you've got Chocapics.

The lack of coordination in turn reflects the lack of leadership that prevailed throughout this project - for example, the project's second technical director was reportedly only partially present on site, due to the preparation of his thesis.

Communication, or the lack of it, is illustrated by the astronomical number of malfunctions that were either not communicated, or were communicated late, to project managers: over 550,000, with a special mention for the fire system, installed upside down.

History will offer us a succession of resignations and takeovers intended to channel the beast and curb the uncontrollable inertia of costs and deadlines, in vain. Corruption, political games and various obstacles are unfortunately too entrenched.

The situation, while laughable at first glance, has also led to the bankruptcy of several companies involved in the project, unable to cope with all kinds of delays. Will the social cost of these bankruptcies be taken into account?

Today, although terminal 1 is open (as is terminal 5, which is Schönefeld), construction of 3 terminals has yet to be completed, with the inauguration of one scheduled for 2021, and the others... who knows.

At AquaFin, it was our years of experience in the field of project management that prompted us to launch our "Project Management an interactive, fun experience that teaches project managers and their sponsors to recognize the signs of a project going awry, implement best practices, and nurture success factors.

Curious about what it might look like? Then write to us!