Make an extensive table of project ‘deliverables’.
Label one column ‘as requested’. Create
another column labelled ‘could be’. Make each
‘could be’ wild and woolly!
Tom Peters, 1999
When a risk occurs, with some ingenuity, this
may open up an opportunity, and conversely
when pursuing an opportunity there will be
associated risks. Risks are generally deemed
acceptable if the possible gains exceed the
possible losses.
Rory Burke, 1999
“What we are looking for is managers who are
awake enough to alter the world as they find it,
to make it harmonize with what they and their
people are trying to accomplish.”
Tom DeMarco The Deadline
Project management is … The art of creating the
illusion that any outcome is the result of a series
of predetermined, deliberate acts when, in fact,
it was dumb luck.
Harold Kerzner, 1995
Project managers rarely lack organisational
visibility, enjoy considerable variety in their dayto-day duties, and often have the prestige
associated with work on the enterprise’s highpriority objectives.
Meredith & Mantel
The project manager must be able to develop a
fully integrated information and control system
to plan, instruct, monitor and control large
amounts of data, quickly and accurately to
facilitate the problem-solving and decisionmaking process.
Rory Burke, 1999
If it is not documented, it doesn’t exist ... As long
information is retained in someone’s head, it is
vulnerable to loss.
Louis Fried 1992
For a project plan to be effective it must equally
address the parameters of ‘activity time’ and
‘activity logic’. This logical relationship is
required to model the effect schedule variance
will have down stream in the project.
Rory Burke, 1999
No major project is ever installed on time,
within budget, with the same staff that started
it.
Edwards, Butler, Hill & Russell, 1997
You can’t keep it all in your head. Project
control tools are an absolute necessity for
the control of large projects.
Louis Fried 1992
‘Don’t use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut’,
but equally don’t agree important things
informally where there is a chance of a
disagreement later over what was agreed.
Colin Bentley, 1997
The project manager is expected to integrate all
aspects of the project, ensure that the proper
knowledge and resources are available when
and where needed, and above all, ensure that
the expected results are produced in a timely,
cost-effective manner.
Meredith & Mantel
Project management can … be defined as a way
of developing structure in a complex project,
where the independent variables of time, cost,
resources and human behaviour come together.
Rory Burke, 1999
Momentum is a fragile force.
Its worst enemy: p-r-o-c-r-a-s-t-i-n-a-t-i-o-n.
Its best friend: a deadline (think Election Day).
Implication no. 1 (and there is no no. 2): Get to
work! NOW!
Tom Peters, 1999
The functional groups should not
be allowed to stretch out the project
for the sake of improvement, refinement, or the
investigation of the most remote potential risk.
Meredith & Mantel
Why do so many professionals say they are
project managing, when what they are actually
doing is fire fighting?
Colin Bentley, 1997
“Some of the most flowery praise you hear on
the subject of teams is only hypocrisy.
Managers learn to talk a good game about
teams even when they’re secretly threatened by
the whole concept.”
Tom DeMarco The Deadline
Like organic entities, projects have life cycles.
From a slow beginning they progress to a
buildup of size, then peak, begin a decline, and
finally must be terminated. (Also, like other
organic entities, they often resist termination.)
Meredith & Mantel
First comes thought; then organization of that
thought, into ideas and plans; then
transformation of those plans into reality. The
beginning, as you will observe, is in your
imagination.
Napoleon Hill
“Get the right people. Then no matter what all
else you might do wrong after that, the people
will save you. That’s what management is all
about.”
Tom DeMarco The Deadline
So you’re not a “sales guy” (or gal). B-a-l-o-n-e-y.
We’re all “sales guys” … if – if! – we care enough
about our project.
Tom Peters, 1999
You may con a person into committing to an
unreasonable deadline, but you cannot bully
them into meeting it.
Edwards, Butler, Hill & Russell, 1997
Project Management is...
The art of creating the illusion that any outcome
is the result of a series of predetermined,
deliberate acts when, in fact, it was dumb luck.
Harold Kerzner, 1995
Don’t do anything you don’t have to do.
Louis Fried 1992
Project management is like juggling three
balls - time, cost and quality. Programme
management is like a troupe of circus
performers standing in a circle, each juggling
three balls and swapping balls from time to
time.
Geoff Reiss
I am not interested in...making sure that you
(the employee) are here, that you are giving
us
so many hours a day. We need people who
will deliver a final result.
Ricardo Semler, 2003
Unless commitment is made, there
are only promises and hopes
... but no plans.
Peter Drucker
The conditions attached to a promise are
forgotten and the promise is remembered.
Edwards, Butler, Hill & Russell, 1997
The P in PM is as much about
‘people management’ as it is
about ‘project management’.
Cornelius Fichtner
A good plan can help with risk analyses but it
will never guarantee the smooth running of the
project.
Bentley & Borman 2001
Ensure your documentation is short and sharp
and make much more use of people-to-people
communication.
Bentley & Borman 2001
A well-constructed project management
workshop should give people a solid foundation
to build on.
Bentley & Borman 2001
A task is not done until it is done.
Louis Fried 1992
If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't
thinking.
General George Patton Jr
Project proposals, business cases or cost benefit
analyses are probably being massaged (either by
underestimating costs or timeframes or by being
very optimistic about the benefits) so projects
will be approved.
Bentley & Borman 2001
Reconnaissance memoranda should always be
written in the simplest style and be purely
descriptive. They should never stray from their
objective by introducing extraneous ideas.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Know when to cut your losses if necessary. Don't
let your desire to succeed be the enemy of good
judgment. If Napoleon had left Moscow
immediately, he may have returned with a
salvageable army.
Jerry Manas, 2002
[At the end of the project.]
Lavish credit on anyone and
everyone who helped you the least
bit.
Tom Peters, 1999
As has been taught to teachers of
the Harvard Business School, the
art of asking good questions is
often the most important element
of managerial tasks.
Parte Bose 2004
Projects progress quickly until they become 90%
complete; then remain at 90% complete forever.
Edwards, Butler, Hill & Russell, 1997
Each completed task establishes
certain parameters and imposes
constraints on the next task.
Louis Fried 1992