Heroic Projects: Hadrian’s Wall

Steve Kirk is Director, SGK Consulting.

  ProjectsAtWork  

Hadrian’s Wall was the most ambitious construction project of Roman times. Undertaken to maintain security in Roman Britain, the 80-mile border fortification offers today’s project leaders some historical food for thought, including a compelling business case, constraint tradeoffs and changing requirements.

When we look to other projects for guidance, we often focus on the negative. Sometimes, it seems that you can’t pick up an article that doesn’t refer to the Standish report or other research that tells us how badly we do projects and what failures they have been. I think it’s time to redress the balance. It’s time to recognize that there have been spectacularly successful projects in the past that have changed the world and achieved what seemed impossible. This is the first in a new series that describes these heroic projects and highlights lessons that are still applicable to our projects today.

When the Roman Emperor Hadrian landed in Britannia (modern day Great Britain) in AD 122 he had a major problem to resolve. Unrest with the local tribes in northern England had been troubling the occupying Roman forces for the last two years and he needed to impose his authority or risk a full-scale rebellion.

Hadrian had been in power for five years by now and had adopted a policy of consolidating his empire rather than …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.