Are you managing an "everest" project? A case study considering issues for project managers born from tragedy

Abstract

There is a need for case studies that provide opportunities to learn the difficult nuances of project management that are difficult to effectively recreate within another's mind. This article offers survival skills in project management for the difficult existing business environment, particularly within information systems, of today. The case study considers the tragic expeditions in 1996 to scale the peak of Mount Everest. Things went terribly wrong, ending in the deadliest tragedy in the history of the mountain. The accounts of the survivors summarized within several books on the ordeal are used to consider the implications of project management issues that pervade such difficult projects - leadership styles, hubris, planning, communication, and constraints. Readers of this case study should consider effectively implementing practices that could prove to be the difference in surviving an "Everest" project.