Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.
Denver Airport Authority
Project: Construction of a new baggage handling system (sub-project in the development of the complete new airport)
Date: 1992 – 1995 (with final product being fully abandoned in 2005)
Cost: $520M USD
Synopsis :
Dysfunctional decision making is the poison that kills many a project and the Denver Airport Baggage System project in the 1990’s is a classic example. Hubris from those in the most senior levels of an organization blinded them to realities and led to commitments that could never be fulfilled. At the time the project was initiated it promised to be the world’s largest and most efficient baggage system. By the time it was delivered the concept had been reduced to just trolley carts and manual labor. On the way the project prevented the opening of the otherwise completed airport and accumulated more than $500M in additional finance costs.
From hubris came bad decisions. From bad decisions came problems and from those problems things snowballed into a financial catastrophe.
Read the full story :
Full 10-page case study covering the saga: Denver International Airport`s baggage handling system.
Contributing factors as reported in the press :
Management hubris. The underestimation of complexity. Failure to listen to the Subject Matter Experts. A lack of planning resulting in subsequent changes in strategy. Excessive schedule pressure. Lack of due diligence. Making firm commitments in the face of massive risks and uncertainty. Poor stakeholder management. Communications breakdowns. People working in silos. Poor design. Failure to perform risk management. Failure to understand the implication change requests might have. Lack of management oversight.