It is hard to believe! Who would have thought that a nine man project team and $100,000 over the course of one year led by Tōru Iwatani would revolutionize the world of gaming with Pac-Man? It’s been 30 years since the launching of Pac-Man and as a project is still recognizable and enjoyed by all. In fact, when Google recently honored our little yellow friend on March 21st by providing a live working version on its home page it is estimated that on that day alone there was a loss of 4.8 million hours (at an estimate cost of $120 million) in lost productivity by companies. A true visionary, Iwatani introduced casual gaming to a broader audience, in an industry at the time focused on a young male audience.
There is no doubt that the “Pac-Man” project was a true success. However, the great thing about successful projects like Pac-Man, in almost every case, you can never predict the impact they will have on the audience they will ultimately serve. The lesson to be learned from Pac-Man is that projects are unpredictable. Project managers could only do their best in planning the successful delivery of a product or service set forth by their stakeholders. The fate of a project’s outcome will only be determined by the final consumer. That being the case, the unpredictable nature of a project’s success makes project management a discipline that needs to focus not only on streamlining the execution and delivery of the intended plan, but also the planning for the unknown. That means equipping your project leadership, teams and stakeholders with the best available strategy to handle unplanned risks, changes, and issues.
To learn how prepared your project management organization is in planning for the inevitable unpredictability of your projects , we welcome you to complete our “PM Maturity Assessment “survey and get your own free evaluation report.
Tags: Lost Productivity, Pac-Man, Successful Project Management
