Why Major Projects Fail: Summary of Bent Flyvbjerg’s Book ‘How Big Things Get Done’

High-profile construction megaprojects routinely plunge into crisis through mismanagement and unforeseen complications. Boston’s Big Dig exemplifies this pattern as it swelled to five times its intended budget, dragging the city through nearly two decades of disruption before concluding in 2007. Sydney’s Opera House began as a modest four-year, $7-million plan and morphed into a 14-year, $102-million ordeal—its ever-evolving design and underestimated complexity a cautionary tale in unchecked ambition. Montreal’s 1976 Olympic Stadium, derisively dubbed the “Big Owe,” left taxpayers grappling with debt for over 30 years, and Germany’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport staggered behind schedule for a decade before finally opening in 2020.

Bent Flyvbjerg and journalist Dan Gardner meticulously deconstruct these tribulations in 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 (2023.) Their exhaustive study of 16,000 projects reveals that a mere 8.5% adhere to their initial time and budget estimates, with an unforgiving 0.5% delivering on time, cost, and promised impact. Project planners often engage in strategic misrepresentation, deliberately understating expenses to secure approval, while the sunk-cost fallacy pits stakeholders against cutting their losses despite mounting over-expenditure. Speed without foresight compounds disaster.

In sharp contrast, China’s rapid rollout of the world’s largest high-speed rail network demonstrates the power of standardization and modular design. By employing repetition over reinvention, the nation completed its vast system in under a decade—a testament to disciplined execution. Pixar’s playbook in American animation underscores the virtues of a robust pre-production phase; meticulous storyboarding and character development catch chaos before it spreads, ensuring a smoother production process. Similarly, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao stands as an exemplar of efficient project management. Frank Gehry’s pioneering use of advanced computer-aided design let his iconic vision be refined in silicon before forged in steel.

These case studies drive home a singular truth: megaprojects succeed when disciplined forecasting, realistic budgeting, and proactive risk assessment govern the process. Conversely, the allure of expediency—the temptation to overpromise and underdeliver—is often the prelude to collapse. Flyvbjerg and Gardner’s analysis cuts through the hubris of grand plans, offering a compelling narrative that contrasts spectacular failures with triumphs born from deliberate design and rigorously earned execution.

Recommendation: Fast-read How Big Things Get Done—its stories don’t just teach project management; they expose the anatomy of ambition. Managing complexity demands more than vision. It requires a systematic, no-nonsense commitment to planning, precision, and integrity. This exploration offers a sobering yet galvanizing blueprint for anyone engaged in—and affected by—the colossal undertaking of building our modern world.