In June 1746, a nearly unknown writer named Samuel Johnson signed a contract with a consortium of London booksellers to produce a comprehensive English dictionary within three years�. The 1,500‑guinea advance allowed him to rent a house and hire assistants, but the task proved Herculean: Johnson worked largely alone and repeatedly abandoned and restarted procedures�. The work took nine years and was finally published on 15 April 1755�, and along the way his wife Tetty died in March 1952�.
This simplified Gantt chart maps major activities and events across the ten‑year span of Johnson’s project. Tasks overlap substantially; lexical research continued as he wrote definitions and gathered quotations, while copying and editing overlapped with the final printing stages. The single red bar marks the death of his wife, a personal tragedy that disrupted the schedule and reveals how personal risk events can affect project timelines.
| Probability/Impact | Low Impact | Medium Impact | High Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low Probability | Sponsorship dispute with publishers | Discovery of lexical duplicates | Political censorship |
| Medium Probability | Assistants’ turnover | Cost overruns (materials & printing) | Schedule slippage (three‑year plan proving unrealistic) |
| High Probability | Quality variance in definitions | Expansion of scope (adding quotations and etymologies) | Personal health & life events (Tetty’s death, illness) |
The risk matrix frames uncertainties Johnson faced. His contract promised completion within three years�, making schedule slippage a high‑impact risk; adding thousands of literary quotations expanded the project’s scope, and both risks were realised. Financial and human‑resource risks were moderate but persistent, as he quarrelled with publishers and relied on a small team of copyists�. The death of his wife mid‑project exemplifies high‑probability, high‑impact personal risk that modern project managers often overlook.