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The sinking of the Vasa in 1628, a lesson in project management

The Vasa was a Swedish warship built between 1625 and 1628. After multiple defeats in the early 1620s, it was supposed to embody the renewal of the Swedish navy and to show the strength of the country. It did not have the opportunity to shine much though: it drowned less than 5 minutes after its first launch. During the maiden voyage, there was little wind, but it was enough to knock it over. Water poured in, and it sank 32m deep, 120m away from the shore. It stayed in Stockholm’s harbor for 333 years. The wreck was found in good shape in the early 1950s since it merely, calmly, sank without prior damage.

The Vasa, Klaus Stiefel

So what went wrong? There were a few problems.

The king was not the only problem though.

That’s pretty much project management 101, but this story is a good reminder of some best practices you may want to enforce on your projects. It’s easy to see what others don’t do right, but maybe there are areas of improvement for you as well ?

More about this on Wikipedia.

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