Burnside's Bridge and Lessons Learned for Program Management

摘要

Instances abound where individuals have become so focused on implementing a specific tactic, they forget the overarching strategy; or they become so enthralled with the elegance of a particular strategy, they lose the opportunity to achieve the ultimate objective. The January-February 2007 edition of the Defense AT&L included an article titled 'Learning Program Management on the Battlefield at Gettysburg,' by Dr. Owen Gadeken, who used the 'learning from experience' concept to apply the lessons learned from the Battle of Gettysburg to program management. Similarly, the intent of this article is to provide some lessons learned from another seminal battle during the American Civil War. In this case, we recount portions of the Battle of Antietam and attempt to show how these lessons apply to current-day acquisition.