Project Management – Summer 2022

Assignment 1: Hussam Dawood Al-Areeqi [ID: 62030123]

Case Study (1.4):

Throwing Good Money after Bad”: The BBC’s Digital Media initiative

Questions:
1. What does the story of the BBC’s failed Digital Media Initiative suggest to you about
the importance of carefully managing not only the project but the “message” of the
project? That is, why is “benefits management” critical for project success?

The BBC’s failed initiative demonstrates that even big corporations would
miserably fail if they did not properly plan for new projects. A successful project
management requires careful planning, a coherent goal or set of goals for the project,
as well as a clear understanding of these goals throughout the organization. One of
the problems with this project was a lack of understanding among BBC staff of what
exactly digitizing the BBC’s system would do. What were the benefits from this
project? Without a clear understanding of the goals, it was not feasible to craft a
coherent message about its benefits, leading to misunderstandings, faulty
interpretations, as well as miscommunication among the staff implementing this
project.
 Project Management – Summer 2022
Assignment 1: Hussam Dawood Al-Areeqi [ID: 62030123]

2. Successful project management requires clear organization, careful planning, and

good execution. How was the absence of each of these traits shown in this
example?

The BBC Digital Media case illustrates the importance of carefully organizing
various groups and teams, including contractors and other stakeholders, to ensure
that everyone is working toward the same goals. The project's blunders and
technological failures demonstrate the need of managing not only the project's core
technologies, but also all interactions among members of the larger project team.
When the difficulties began, the project team failed to adequately control the
message to the general public, arguing that the technology was good despite several
examples of failure.