Reducing the Unknowns: The Value of Lab Informatics Project Managers

On every project there are things that we know and things that we don’t know. It is the project manager’s responsibility to plan for and manage both the knowns and the unknowns in order to deliver the project on-time, within budget, and meeting specifications.  But there is another unknown out there that must also be managed, the “unknown unknown”.  Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense, famously put it as follows:

“….as we know, there are known knowns; these are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

Rumsfeld’s statement, which at first glance seems nonsensical, actually contains great insight and wisdom for both battlefield commanders and project managers.  Not heeding these wise words can lead to a battlefield defeat or a failed project.  How so?  Let’s examine each of the (un)knowns in turn. [Read more]

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CSols, Inc. 
Informatics Insider 
www.csolsinc.com/blog