These cases highlight the very real problems of effective project management in relation to particular types of projects. The paradox is that, despite long experience in public projects, governments (and many private sector firms) repeatedly make the same mistakes.
Why are the lessons of the past apparently not learned and applied in big projects? One a New South Wales may be the ‘phenomenon of institutional amnesia’ (Pollitt 2000: 5). Seeking to explain ‘the declining ability – and willingness – of public sector institutions in many countries to access and make use of possibly relevant past experiences,’ Pollitt offers the following causes:
Constant restructuring of departments and institutions. As governments and/or chief executives change, each one seeks to put their signature on the administration (the ‘new broom’), frequently through the vehicle of organisational change. One of the adverse effects of this is that organisations and key people lose touch with experience and/or records that contain important lessons.
Changes in the form of record keeping, from one media to another, or to a new and different operating system or software, may mean that important information on lessons learned is lost or the location of the information is forgotten;
The decline of the concept of public service as a permanent career (to which could be added the increasing politicisation of the public service). Thus important project decisions may be made by managers with little or no experience of past debacles and little interest in longer-term perspectives.
The embrace of ‘unceasing, radical change’, with its attendant dismissal of the past and primary focus on the future.