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    Leading Large-Scale Projects: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

    Leading large-scale IT projects is a complex endeavor fraught with potential pitfalls, from scope creep to rapidly changing customer needs and technological advancements. However, the most common thread in project failures is the lack of clearly defined parameters and goals. A skilled project manager (PM) plays a crucial role in navigating these challenges by documenting the project's scope, maintaining transparent communication, and ensuring every step is officially recorded. This documentation isn't just a bureaucratic exercise; it's vital for accountability, problem-solving, and learning from past experiences. A famous anecdote from Microsoft's Windows 95-98 era underscores this point—an undocumented piece of code caused widespread inefficiencies and costly workarounds, highlighting the critical importance of meticulous record-keeping. Ultimately, success in large-scale projects often hinges on the PM's ability to transform ambitious visions into actionable, well-documented plans.