What does it take to make a project succeed? This astute collection of articles helicopters managers above the day-to-day grind of project management to understand the big-picture reasons behind why projects fly-and why they fail. Why are some bad projects so hard to kill-and why do some good projects tank? This book will help managers make decisions that enable the right projects to succeed.

Articles originally published 1985-2003 in Harvard business review.

Why good projects fail anyway / Nadim F. Matta, Ronald N. Ashkenas -- New projects: beware of false economies / David Davis -- The return map: tracking product teams / Charles H. House, Raymond L. Price -- Knowing when to pull the plug / Barry M. Staw, Jerry Ross -- Why bad projects are so hard to kill / Isabelle Royer -- How to kill creativity / Teresa M. Amabile -- Speeding up team learning / Amy Edmondson, Richard Bohmer, Gary Pisano -- What you don't know about making decisions / David A. Garvin, Michael A. Roberto.