ABSTRACT

Managing a dictionary project is not an easy task. It is often quoted that only 25 percent of all lexicographic projects are finished with the presentation of a dictionary. And even worse, the finished dictionaries were not finished on time but took, on average, four times longer than planned. We have never seen any kind of documentation for this assertion. But looking at the many failed dictionary projects, it seems likely that we have a big scope of mismanagement in practical lexicography. If the assertion is correct, lexicographers should learn to avoid wasting time and money, e.g. by asking themselves if they can and should learn from management theories. Management theories highlight the fact that management of a project is of considerable economic importance (see e.g. Winter et al. (2006) and Svejvik and Andersen (2015: 278)).