Bozorrific to be added to 4th edition of the PMBOK in December 2008...

Just kidding! Unfortunately Bozorrific will not be in PMI's 4th edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge scheduled for release in December but it should. Please don't report me to the PMBOK police! I define Bozorrific as follows:

Bozorrific: Negative outcomes resulting from management practices so poor or non-existent that a "clown like" work culture prevails over common sense.

Here is a recent case of the Bozorrific. A $1.4 billion dollar Stealth Bomber crashed on February 23, 2008 at Andersen Air Force Base on the Island of Guam. You can read about the crash here http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/06/crash.ap/index.html. Just so we have perspective that is $1,400,000,000.00. That's a lot of zeros. The last Space Shuttle Orbiter built cost around $1.7 billion.

The crash was preventable!

The crash itself doesn't make it Bozorrific. What makes it Bozorrific is the crash was preventable if a known solution to the moisture problem that caused the crash had been adequately communicated. In other words they had a lesson learned that somehow didn't get communicated to the entire organization.

What good is a lesson learned if it is not communicated and applied?

One of the good things about the United States government is that we have a fair amount of public disclosure, so when Bozorrific events happen they become public (usually). Although embarrassing it allows everyone the opportunity to learn from the mistake. We all know Bozorrific is not limited to the public sector.

The good news is this event, this $1,400,000,000.00 loss of tax dollars, should cause you to canvass your organization now and periodically hereafter for lessons learned that haven't been and should be migrated throughout the organization. You can use this B2 Bomber incident as a catalyst to cause people to examine their projects and processes for lessons learned.

Don't let it happen to you!

This situation reminds me of a plaque that I inherited in my last position with NASA. The plaque reads "Events of great consequences are often caused by trifling circumstances." It was a trifling circumstance that caused this crash. As a leader, to avoid Bozorrific events we have to beat down trifling circumstances. Allowing problems to occur when we already know the cure certainly qualifies as a trifling circumstance.

Dr. James T. Brown PMP PE CSP