Information Systems
College of Business Administration
University of Missouri - St. Louis
A Great Warrior

A hundred years ago in China, there was a great warrior named "Yun" who was appointed as the leader of a strong army. He was recognized by the many large cities in the region as a great warrior. His main duty was to attack and control as many cities as possible. Every time when he led his army he destroyed his opponents and take control of many cities. For more than 10 years, he fought over 100 battles and won all of them. However, there was a smart leader who ruled a small city. Yun wanted to destroy this city and take control of this small city as this was a gateway to the northern area of his kingdom. When Yun attacked this small city, he lost because his opponent carefully planned and effectively used his limited resources to build fire cannons around the city. Yun had never encountered such a clever enemy like this before. He still used his old way of attack. Obviously, his way was proved ineffective as he was continuously losing his soldiers because his enemy always employed new and creative tactical defense. In the last attack, he, together with a small number of tired soldiers, attacked this city again. At last, he was killed as he could not escape from the enemy.


Moral:

1. One can not use past successful project approaches to apply to new and different projects. Understanding the new project thoroughly is one way to effectively plan the project.

2. A large number of project team does not guarantee that project will be successful or completed faster. The effective usage of available resources is more crucial.

3. If project implementation is not going as planned, one should not close his eyes and continue implementing in the wrong approach. Stepping back and reviewing the situation is the best possible way to start implementing the project again.


These stories are adapted examples written in my class, IS 6840 (formerly MSIS 488).
© Vicki L. Sauter. All rights Reserved.


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Page Owner: Professor Sauter (Vicki.Sauter@umsl.edu)

© Vicki L. Sauter. All rights Reserved.