Bent Flyvbjerg

“Also, the technologically high-risk Apollo aerospace programme is considered a classic success story of megaproject planning and implementation. The cost overrun on this US$21 billion project was only 5 per cent. Few know, however, that the original budget estimate included US$8 billion of contingencies.18 By allowing for risk with foresight, the programme avoided ending up in the type of large cost overrun that destabilises many major projects during implementation. The Apollo approach, with its realistic view of risks, costs and contingencies, should be adopted in more major projects.”
― Bent Flyvbjerg, Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition

“We’re good at learning by tinkering—which is fortunate, because we’re terrible at getting things right the first time.”
― Bent Flyvbjerg, How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between