CHAOS Report: Beyond Infinity — in its hardcover edition, signed by Jim Johnson — is more than a book; it’s a collector’s piece of IT history. This 260-page, full-color volume brims with hundreds of charts, tables, and graphics, offering both data and perspective from decades of research into software project success and failure.
The journey begins in Section 1, where three newly defined Factors of Success—Good Place, Good Team, and Good Sponsor—are introduced. From there, the narrative uncovers the root cause of project failure: poor decision latency. Digging deeper, it traces that latency back to its origin—low emotional maturity within project environments.
Section 2 revisits the Classic CHAOS Charts, the very visuals that shaped industry understanding of software project outcomes for over a quarter-century. Section 3 expands with new charts on Types and Styles of Projects. The next three sections provide deep profiles of the Good Sponsor, Good Team, and Good Place, translating decades of observational data into practical insight.
Section 7 offers a rare overview of the current CHAOS Database, while Section 8 explores the New Resolution Database Benchmark, the latest evolution in project performance measurement.
A highlight of the book is The Dutch Connection, documenting how researchers and practitioners in the Netherlands and Belgium influenced and enriched CHAOS research. Myths and Illusions follows, dismantling persistent misconceptions about “project improvement.”
The book closes with an Epilogue that sweeps across 60 years of software development history—connecting lessons from the past to the challenges of the present.
Owning this signed edition is not just acquiring a book—it’s holding a tangible artifact from the history of software project research.