| Escalation in Decision-Making: The Tragedy of Taurus Contributor(s): Drummond, Helga (Author) |
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ISBN: 0198289537 ISBN-13: 9780198289531 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $223.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 1997 Annotation: Getting projects going is one thing. Stopping them is another. This book examines how and why organizations become ensnared in disastrous decisions. The focal point is Taurus, the now notorious IT venture commissioned by the London Stock Exchange. Taurus was intended to replace London's antiquated share settlement procedures with a state of the art electronic system that would be the envy of the world. The project collapsed after three years' intensive work at a cost to the Stock Exchange and the City of London totalling almost (pound)500 million. The book is an absorbing study of what the author calls 'escalation' in decision-making-'persistence with a decision well beyond the point where a sensible person would give it up'. Such things can happen in any organization on any project, although some may claim that it happens disproportionately often with major IT projects. The Taurus project was nicknamed 'The Mad Hatter's Tea Party'. This book is a salutary tale of rationality, expertise, committees, and human failing. It will be of interest to all concerned with organizational decision-making, IT investment, project management and the workings of the British financial system. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Business & Economics | Investments & Securities - General - Business & Economics | Decision Making & Problem Solving - Business & Economics | Economic History |
| Dewey: 658.403 |
| LCCN: 96021020 |
| Lexile Measure: 1260 |
| Physical Information: 0.75" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (1.08 lbs) 286 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book describes the Taurus project--a 500m project to automate settlement systems on the London Stock Exchange. Begun in 1986, it was eventually abandoned in 1993. How was it that a major project promoted by the Stock Exchange, supervised by committees, advised upon by two major consultancies, staffed by an experienced technical team, could go wrong? Why was the decision to abandon the project not taken earlier? Written in the context of theories of decision-making, the book both tells an absorbing story and adds to our understanding of decision escalation. |
