Lessons in Project Management: The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China was and still is the greatest architectural project ever undertaken by humankind. It covers a total of 3,700 miles and was built mostly to protect the northern borders of China from the Mongolian and Manchurian nomadic invaders. However, the Great Wall (in all its grandeur) stands as a monument to why ill planned projects fail. While the Great Wall did have some success achieving one of its many purposes, the fact that all stakeholders were not working together, the strategy was ill defined, and an ultimate goal did not exist, are reasons why an alternative strategy would have been more effective both in the short and long term for the Chinese people as a whole.