Project Management Truisms compiled by Key Consulting

Scope Management

Initial planning is the most vital part of a project. The review of most failed projects indicates the disasters were well planned to happen from the start.
Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it
At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out.
The most valuable and least used WORD in a project manager's vocabulary is "NO".
When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!

You can force someone into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot force him to meet it.
If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.
Tasks progress quickly until they become 90 percent complete and then remain at 90 percent forever.
A project gets a year late one day at a time.
The sooner you start the implementation phase, the later you'll finish.

The nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.
A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and will always melt when heat is applied.
While there never seems to be enough time to do it right the first time, there always seems to enough time to go back and do it again.
If you don't know how to do a task, start it, then ten people who know less than you will tell you how to do it.
Projects happen in two ways: a) Planned and then executed or b) Executed, stopped, planned, and then executed.

The same work under the same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at ten different times.
Any project can be estimated accurately (once it's completed).

Most managers succeed on the skills and strength of their staff.
If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
Too few people on a project can't solve the problems - too many create more problems than they solve.
A comfortable project manager is one waiting for their next assignment (or on the verge of failure).
Everyone asks for a strong project manager – when they get one they don't want one.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
A leader leads by example, whether s/he wants to or not.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.
A user will tell you anything you ask about, but nothing more.
Of several possible interpretations of a communication, the least convenient is the probably the correct one.
If it’s not a paper – it wasn’t said.
A working meeting has about six people attending. Meetings larger than this are for information transfer.
I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Very simple problems can be made confusing, complex, and insoluble if you hold enough meetings.
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.

Wrong decisions made early can be recovered from. Right decisions made late cannot correct them.
The more you plan the luckier you get.
If you don't attack the risks, the risks will attack you.
What you don't know hurts you.
The most valuable and least used PHRASE in a project manager's vocabulary is "I don't know".
Murphy is alive and well - and working on your project.
The solution is always simple - after you know what it is.
What we need is an exact list of specific unknown risks we might encounter.

Fast - cheap - good: pick any two.
The conditions attached to a promise are forgotten, only the promise is remembered.

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