🚧Project Management: Project Management (Just the Quotes)

"Amid a wash of paper, a small number of documents become the critical pivots around which every project's management revolves. These are the manager's chief personal tools." (William Bengough, "Scene in the old Congressional Library", 1897) 

"Project management is becoming more important as equipment, systems, and projects become more complex." (Bud Porter-Roth, "Proposal Development", 1955)

"The classical vertical arrangement for project management is characterized by an inherent self-sufficiency of operation. It has within its structure all the necessary specialized skills to provide complete engineering capabilities and it also has the ability to carry on its own laboratory investigations, preparation of drawings, and model or prototype manufacture. (Penton Publishing Company, Automation Vol 2, 1955)

"The accuracy of estimates is a function of the stage of development (i.e. estimates improve as development of the item progress). This also means that estimates for development projects representing only 'modest advances' tend to be better than for more ambitious projects." (A W Marshall & W H Meckling, "Predictability of the Cost, Time and Success of Development", [Report P-1821] 1959)

"The difficulty in project management is how to apply competition between task efforts and between subtask efforts when such things as the task managers' work, schedules, and budgets are all different." (John S Baumgartner, "Project Management", 1963)

"If a given task depends on the completion of other assignments in other functional areas, and if it will, in turn, affect the cost or timing of subsequent tasks, project management is probably called for." (American Management Association, "Management Review", 1966)

"Basic to successful project management is recognizing when the project is needed - in other words, when to form a project, as opposed to when to use the regular functional organization to do the job." (David I Cleland & William R King, Systems Analysis and Project Management, 1968)

"Project management is not universally applicable. The utility of the idea depends on the magnitude of the effort, the complexity, the degree of unfamiliarity and interrelatedness, and the concern with the organization's reputation." (David I Cleland & William R King, "Systems Analysis and Project Management", 1968)

"Project management is needed only for situations which are out of the ordinary; but when the need exists, this may often be the only way by which the task may be handled successfully. These situations require a different attitude on the part of the top management, the undivided attention of a project manager and different methods for control and communications than those used in the normal routine business situation. […] Pure project management assigns complete responsibility for the task and resources needed for its accomplishment to one project manager. The organization of a large project, though it will be dissolved upon completion of the task, operates for its duration much like a regular division and is relatively independent of any other division or staff group." (Executive Sciences Institute, Operations Research/Management Science Vol 6, 1964)

"Project management is the process by which it is assured that the objective is achieved and resources are not wasted. Planning is one of the two parts of project management. Control is the other. [...] Each project must first be planned in detail. Control is involved with comparing actual progress with the plan and taking corrective action when the two do not correspond. Without the plan, true control is not possible; the need for corrective action, its nature, extent, and urgency cannot he accurately determined." (Robert D Carlsen & James A Lewis, "The Systems Analysis Workbook: A complete guide to project implementation and control", 1973)

"Project management is clearly a part of software engineering, and its effective employment plays a major role in reducing the problems associated with delivering software within estimated time and cost." (Richard H Thayer & John H. Lehman, Software Engineering Project Management, 1977)

"If a high degree of certainty exists concerning all major events, operations, and outcomes, project management is not essential." (John R. Adams et al, "Managing by Project Management", 1979)

"The acceptance of project management has not been easy, however. Many executives are not willing to accept change and are inflexible when it comes to adapting to a different environment." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management", 1979)

"Generally, project management is distinguished from the general management of corporations by the mission- oriented nature of a project. A project organization will generally be terminated when the mission is accomplished." (Chris Hendrickson & Tung Au, "Project Management for Construction", 1989)

"An important part of project management is keeping track of thoughts, assumptions, suggestions, limitations, and the myriad related details of the project." (InfoWorld Vol. 12 (17), 1990)

"A methodology should be as simple as possible to get the job done. If you make the requirements a burden, rather than a help, then people will resist following them. You want to achieve a consistent, workable approach to managing projects, not hang a noose around the manager’s neck." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Getting project management to work in an organization requires a change in culture." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"The entire reason for managing a project is to make sure you get the results desired by the organization. This is commonly called being in control, and it is what is expected of a project manager." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"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, "Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling", 2009)

"Effective project and program management involves more than strict adherence to a prescriptive methodology. Leadership skills, judgement, common sense, initiative, effective communication, negotiation skills and a broad perspective on the surrounding environment are all essential. Project and program management is a creative and collaborative process." (Peter Shergold, "Learning from Failure", 2015)

👷🏻Harold Kerzner - Collected Quotes

"The acceptance of project management has not been easy, however. Many executives are not willing to accept change and are inflexible when it comes to adapting to a different environment." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management", 1979)

"There are always 'class or prestige' gaps between various levels of management. There are also functional gaps between working units of the organization. If we superimpose the management gaps on top of the functional gaps, we find that companies are made up of small operational islands that refuse to communicate with one another for fear that giving up information may strengthen their opponents. The project manager’s responsibility is to get these islands to communicate cross-functionally toward common goals and objectives." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling", 1979)

"There is no such thing as a good or bad organizational structure; there are only appropriate or inappropriate ones." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling", 1979)

"Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, project management utilises the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific project (the horizontal hierarchy)." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management for Executives", 1982)

"The acceptance of project management has not been easy, however. Many executives are not willing to accept change and are inflexible when it comes to adapting to a different environment." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management for Executives", 1982)

"Project failures are not always the result of poor methodology; the problem may be poor implementation. Unrealistic objectives or poorly defined executive expectations are two common causes of poor implementation. Good methodologies do not guarantee success, but they do imply that the project will be managed correctly." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Success or failure of a project depends upon the ability of key personnel to have sufficient data for decision-making. Project management is often considered to be both an art and a science. It is an art because of the strong need for interpersonal skills, and the project planning and control forms attempt to convert part of the 'art' into a science." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Today, excellent companies realize that project failures have more to do with behavioral shortcomings - poor employee morale, negative human relations, low productivity, and lack of commitment." (Harold Kerzner, "In search of excellence in project management", 1998)

"Today, most project management practitioners focus on planning failure. If this aspect of the project can be compressed, or even eliminated, then the magnitude of the actual failure, should it occur, would be diminished. A good project management methodology helps to reduce planning failure. Today, we believe that planning failure, when it occurs, is due in large part to the project manager’s inability to perform effective risk management." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"When unmeetable expectations are formed, failure is virtually assured, since we have defined failure as unmet expectations. This is called a planning failure and is the difference between what was planned to be accomplished and what was, in fact, achievable. The second component of failure is poor performance or actual failure. This is the difference between what was achievable and what was actually accomplished." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"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, "Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling", 2009)

🚧Project Management: Project Failure (Just the Quotes)

"Rushing into action, you fail.

Trying to grasp things, you lose them.

Forcing a project to completion,

you ruin what was almost ripe."
(Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching", cca. 6th-century BC)

"In many ways, project management is similar to functional or traditional management. The project manager, however, may have to accomplish his ends through the efforts of individuals who are paid and promoted by someone else in the chain of command. The pacing factor in acquiring a new plant, in building a bridge, or in developing a new product is often not technology, but management. The technology to accomplish an ad hoc project may be in hand but cannot be put to proper use because the approach to the management is inadequate and unrealistic. Too often this failure can be attributed to an attempt to fit the project to an existing management organization, rather than molding the management to fit the needs of the project. The project manager, therefore, is somewhat of a maverick in the business world. No set pattern exists by which he can operate. His philosophy of management may depart radically from traditional theory." (David I Cleland & William R King, "Systems Analysis and Project Management", 1968)

"But the greater the primary risk, the safer and more careful your secondary assumptions must be. A project is only as sound as its weakest assumption, or its largest uncertainty." (Robert Heller, "The Naked Manager: Games Executives Play", 1972)

"Faced with a decision, always ask one implacable question: If this project fails, if the worst comes to the worst, what will be the result? If the answer is total corporate disaster, drop the project. If the worst possible outcome is tolerable, say, break-even, the executive has the foundation of all sound decision making - a fail-safe position." (Robert Heller, "The Naked Manager: Games Executives Play", 1972)

"The Eighth Truth of Management is: if you are doing something wrong, you will do it badly. The reverse of this truth is that, if your decision is blindingly right, you will execute it well - or appear to do so, which is much the same thing. But any executive can massacre his own nonsensical project." (Robert Heller, "The Naked Manager: Games Executives Play", 1972)

"Yet intelligent men plump for one project rather than another on the strength of a difference of a few decimal points in the rate of return calculated over the next decade. All such mind-stretching calculation comes under the lash of the Seventh Truth of Management: if you need sophisticated calculations to justify an action, it is probably wrong (the sophisticated calculations, anyway, are all too often based on simple false assumptions)." (Robert Heller, "The Naked Manager: Games Executives Play", 1972)

"Poor management can increase software costs more rapidly than any other factor. Particularly on large projects, each of the following mismanagement actions has often been responsible for doubling software development costs." (Barry Boehm, "Software Engineering Economics", 1981)

"[…] the longer one works on […] a project without actually concluding it, the more remote the expected completion date becomes. Is this really such a perplexing paradox? No, on the contrary: human experience, all-too-familiar human experience, suggests that in fact many tasks suffer from similar runaway completion times. In short, such jobs either get done soon or they never get done. It is surprising, though, that this common conundrum can be modeled so simply by a self-similar power law." (Manfred Schroeder, "Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws Minutes from an Infinite Paradise", 1990)

"Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation." (Steve McConnell, "Rapid Development", 1996)

"Software projects fail for one of two general reasons: the project team lacks the knowledge to conduct a software project successfully, or the project team lacks the resolve to conduct a project effectively." (Steve C McConnell, "Software Project Survival Guide", 1997)

"Today, excellent companies realize that project failures have more to do with behavioral shortcomings - poor employee morale, negative human relations, low productivity, and lack of commitment." (Harold Kerzner, "In search of excellence in project management", 1998)

"Success in all types of organization depends increasingly on the development of customized software solutions, yet more than half of software projects now in the works will exceed both their schedules and their budgets by more than 50%." (Barry Boehm, "Software Cost Estimation with Cocomo II", 2000)

"Choosing a proper project strategy can mean the difference between success and failure." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Note that a project always begins as a concept, and a concept is usually a bit fuzzy. Our job as a team is to clarify the concept, to turn it into a shared understanding that the entire team will accept. It is failure to do this that causes many project failures." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Project failures are not always the result of poor methodology; the problem may be poor implementation. Unrealistic objectives or poorly defined executive expectations are two common causes of poor implementation. Good methodologies do not guarantee success, but they do imply that the project will be managed correctly." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Projects often fail at the beginning, not the end." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Success or failure of a project depends upon the ability of key personnel to have sufficient data for decision-making. Project management is often considered to be both an art and a science. It is an art because of the strong need for interpersonal skills, and the project planning and control forms attempt to convert part of the 'art' into a science." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Today, most project management practitioners focus on planning failure. If this aspect of the project can be compressed, or even eliminated, then the magnitude of the actual failure, should it occur, would be diminished. A good project management methodology helps to reduce planning failure. Today, we believe that planning failure, when it occurs, is due in large part to the project manager’s inability to perform effective risk management." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"When unmeetable expectations are formed, failure is virtually assured, since we have defined failure as unmet expectations. This is called a planning failure and is the difference between what was planned to be accomplished and what was, in fact, achievable. The second component of failure is poor performance or actual failure. This is the difference between what was achievable and what was actually accomplished. […] Perceived failure is the net sum of actual failure and planning failure. […] Planning failure is again assured even if no actual failure occurs. In both of these situations (overplanning and underplanning), the actual failure is the same, but the perceived failure can vary considerably." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"You need to identify and terminate infeasible projects early. Sending a message to project managers that project termination threatens their career will tempt them to continue projects that should die” (Barry Bohem,"Project termination doesn't equal project failure", Computer, 34 (9),  2001)

"Projects fail because of context, not because of content.[...] the traditional emphasis in project management on the technical issues of the project (content) has led to a legacy of an extremely poor set of tools, techniques, and tips for managing the complex of people, political, and other 'softer' issues that make up the context of the project." (Rob Thomsett, "Radical Project Management", 2002)

"Agile development methodologies promise higher customer satisfaction, lower defect rates, faster development times and a solution to rapidly changing requirements. Plan-driven approaches promise predictability, stability, and high assurance. However, both approaches have shortcomings that, if left unaddressed, can lead to project failure. The challenge is to balance the two approaches to take advantage of their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses." (Barry Boehm & Richard Turner, "Observations on balancing discipline and agility", Agile Development Conference, 2003)

"A project is composed of a series of steps where all must be achieved for success. Each individual step has some probability of failure. We often underestimate the large number of things that may happen in the future or all opportunities for failure that may cause a project to go wrong. Humans make mistakes, equipment fails, technologies don't work as planned, unrealistic expectations, biases including sunk cost-syndrome, inexperience, wrong incentives, contractor failure, untested technology, delays, wrong deliveries, changing requirements, random events, ignoring early warning signals are reasons for delays, cost overruns and mistakes. Often we focus too much on the specific project case and ignore what normally happens in similar situations (base rate frequency of outcomes- personal and others)." (Peter Bevelin, "Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger", 2003)

"If you've been in the software business for any time at all, you know that there are certain common problems that plague one project after another. Missed schedules and creeping requirements are not things that just happen to you once and then go away, never to appear again. Rather, they are part of the territory. We all know that. What's odd is that we don't plan our projects as if we knew it. Instead, we plan as if our past problems are locked in the past and will never rear their ugly heads again. Of course, you know that isn't a reasonable expectation." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects", 2003)

"Many things can put a project off course: bureaucracy, unclear objectives, and lack of resources, to name a few. But it is the approach to design that largely determines how complex software can become. When complexity gets out of hand, developers can no longer understand the software well enough to change or extend it easily and safely. On the other hand, a good design can create opportunities to exploit those complex features." (Eric Evans, "Domain-Driven Design: Tackling complexity in the heart of software", 2003)

"A fundamental reason for the difficulties with modern engineering projects is their inherent complexity. The systems that these projects are working with or building have many interdependent parts, so that changes in one part often have effects on other parts of the system. These indirect effects are frequently unanticipated, as are collective behaviors that arise from the mutual interactions of multiple components. Both indirect and collective effects readily cause intolerable failures of the system. Moreover, when the task of the system is intrinsically complex, anticipating the many possible demands that can be placed upon the system, and designing a system that can respond in all of the necessary ways, is not feasible. This problem appears in the form of inadequate specifications, but the fundamental issue is whether it is even possible to generate adequate specifications for a complex system." (Yaneer Bar-Yam, "Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World", 2004)

"The collapse of a particular project may appear to have a specific cause, but an overly high intrinsic complexity of these systems is a problem common to many of them. A chain always breaks first in one particular link, but if the weight it is required to hold is too high, failure of the chain is guaranteed."  (Yaneer Bar-Yam, "Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World", 2004)

"As hard as it is to find good ideas, it's even more difficult to manage them. While the project is humming along, vision document in place and a strong creative momentum moving forward, there is another level of thinking that has to occur: how will the designs and ideas translate into decisions? Even if good designs and ideas are being investigated, and people are excited about what they're working on, the challenge of convergence toward specifications remains. If a shift of momentum toward definitive design decisions doesn't happen at the right time and isn't managed in the right way, disaster waits. For many reasons, project failure begins here." (Scott Berkun, "The Art of Project Management", 2005)

"Failure usually results from a lack of a common approach to accomplish the work as a team. Inadequate leadership fails to create the environment in which teams can flourish. Furthermore, potential team members are seldom trained in how to share their efforts to accomplish team goals. The team may also assume they know more about teamwork than they actually do. So we need to be able to differentiate between superficial teamwork and the real thing." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Project failures can frequently be traced to unrealistic technical, cost, or schedule targets. Such targets may be entirely arbitrary or based on bad assumptions - setting team members up for failure. Furthermore, the goals that motivate one team member may not motivate another member. All tasks don’t have to be inherently motivating - that’s not sensible. But there have to be motivating factors, if by nothing more than participating in goal determination. This also helps ensure adequate opportunity and risk identification, analysis, and management." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Projects are complex non-linear systems and have significant inertia. If you wait to see acute problems before taking action, you will be too late and may make things worse." (Scott Berkun, "Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management", 2005)

"The appropriate models help avoid costly errors that can lead to failure. One of the major sources of project failure is f lawed requirements and scope management. Models of the project environment, therefore, need to address the development and management of project requirements. Continuing to work on the project solution with an insufficient understanding of stakeholder requirements and a deficient requirements development process often leads to expensive time delays and redesigns. This doesn’t have to be the case. A strong requirements development and management process model can provide that ounce of prevention." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Any effort at large-scale reorganization - that is, any project spanning more than two years and, more generally, anything that has not already been done - is inevitably doomed to failure." (Corinne Maier, "Bonjour Laziness: Why Hard Work Doesn't Pay", 2007)

"In software management, coordination is not an afterthought or an ancillary matter; it is the heart of the work, and deciding what tools and methods to use can make or break a project. But getting sidetracked in managing those tools is a potent temptation." (Scott Rosenberg, "Dreaming in Code", 2007)

"As a general rule, implementations do not just spontaneously combust. Failures tend to stem from the aggregation of many issues. Although some issues may have been known since the early stages of the project (for example, the sales cycle or system design), implementation teams discover the majority of problems during the middle of the implementation, typically during some form of testing." (Phil Simon, "Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects", 2010)

"Implementing new systems is not like baking a cake. Organizations cannot follow a recipe with the following ingredients: three consultants, six weeks of testing, two training classes, and a healthy dose of project management. Nor do projects bake for six months until complete, after which time everyone enjoys a delicious piece of cake. For all sorts of reasons, a well-conceived and well-run project may fail, whereas a horribly managed project may come in under budget, ahead of schedule, and do everything that the vendor promised at the onset." (Phil Simon, "Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects", 2010)

"Pre-implementation, post-implementation, and ongoing data audits are invaluable tools for organizations. Used judiciously by knowledgeable and impartial resources, audits can detect, avoid, and minimize issues that can derail an implementation or cause a live system to fail. Rather than view them as superfluous expenses, organizations would be wise to conduct them at key points throughout the system’s life cycle." (Phil Simon, "Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects", 2010)

"The best managed project may fail, whereas a horribly managed project may come in under budget, ahead of schedule, and do everything that the vendor promised at the onset. In reality, however, organizations are unlikely to find themselves in one of these extreme scenarios. On a fundamental level, successfully activating and utilizing a new system is about minimizing risk from day one until the end of the project and beyond. The organization that can do this stands the best chance of averting failure." (Phil Simon, "Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects", 2010)

"Understanding the causes of system failures may help organizations avoid them, although there are no guarantees." (Phil Simon, "Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects", 2010)

"Stakeholder management to me is key, as success or failure is in the eye of the beholder. Time, cost and quality fall prey to the perceptions of the key stakeholders, who may have nothing to do with the running of the project." (Peter Parkes, "NLP for Project Managers", 2011)

"Projects fail from under-communicating, not over-communicating. Even if resource constraints preclude the dependency that you want from being delivered any sooner, clarifying priorities and expectations enables you to plan ahead and work through alternatives." (Edmond Lau, "The Effective Engineer: How to Leverage Your Efforts In Software Engineering to Make a Disproportionate and Meaningful Impact", 2015)

"Reading reviews of failure can be a dispiriting exercise. It can also create a distorted perception of reality. Reform of the implementation of large programs and projects should not just be based on a litany of what has gone wrong. Many things go right and, for that very reason, go unnoticed." (Peter Shergold, "Learning from Failure", 2015)

"Complexity is one of the causes of failing projects; failing to split the project into smaller tasks also causes software quality issues or project failure. Complexity can also be caused by the size of the  project; if the project is too big, there is a huge possibility that the project may become complex and complicated." (Abu S Mahfuz,"Software Quality Assurance", 2016)

"A correct and sanity-checked judgment of both the financial and logistic feasibility of a project is absolutely critical to its eventual outcome; get it wrong and a failed project is almost guaranteed. In support of this statement we can refer to the contents of a number of serious ­academic studies which support the idea that two of the chief causes of the failure, particularly the financial failure, of major infrastructure ­projects are optimism bias and strategic misrepresentations. […] Optimism bias means that the original project sponsors and planners fooled themselves that the project would be easy and could be completed within a 'back-of-the-envelope' budget, perhaps because they didn’t have the experience to know it would be difficult and expensive, or perhaps they didn’t want to know. Strategic misrepresentations mean that even if they did know it would be more difficult and expensive than their published estimate, they lied about it so that the Public, the Banks, and Politicians, would support the idea." (Tony Martyr, "Why Projects Fail", 2018)

"No project should be allowed to proceed without clear specification and acceptance  criteria, that are understood by all participants." (Tony Martyr, "Why Projects Fail", 2018)

"[...] consistently good project results are hard to come by, yet most organisations continue to think they’re doing a great job. It’s got to the stage where project failure has become so commonplace that we’ve started to see it as success, or we just aren’t seeing clearly at all." (Tony Martyr, "Why Projects Fail", 2018)

"Every year more than two-thirds of projects are considered failures, and most organisations would not be surprised by this statistic. In most cases, however, failure was the result of not making a hard decision."  (Colin D Ellis, "The Project Book", 2019)

"Organisations whose IT projects failed usually deployed recognisable project management methodologies; the reasons for failure were invariably to do with failures of project governance rather than simply of operational management." (Alan Calder, "ISO/IEC 38500: A pocket guide" 2nd Ed, 2019)

"Part of the problem is that we take project failure personally, seeing it as a stain on our reputation. It’s worth remembering that while a project may fail, this doesn’t make you a failure as a leader. In fact, the research shows that those who embrace failure become much more resilient and make better decisions as a result, so in that sense failure can only be a good thing." (Colin D Ellis, "The Project Book", 2019)

"Remember, though, there are only two reasons for project failure: poor project sponsorship and poor project management. And given that the buck stops with you, you could argue there’s only one reason for project failure." (Colin D Ellis, "The Project Book", 2019)

"A project is usually considered a failure if it is late, is over budget, or does not meet the customer’s expectations. Without the control that project management provides, a project is more likely to have problems with one of these areas. A problem with only one constraint (scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality, and risk) can jeopardize the entire project." (Sandra F Rowe, "Project Management for Small Projects" 3rd Ed., 2020)

🚧Project Management: Control (Just the Quotes)

"Project management is needed only for situations which are out of the ordinary; but when the need exists, this may often be the only way by which the task may be handled successfully. These situations require a different attitude on the part of the top management, the undivided attention of a project manager and different methods for control and communications than those used in the normal routine business situation. […] Pure project management assigns complete responsibility for the task and resources needed for its accomplishment to one project manager. The organization of a large project, though it will be dissolved upon completion of the task, operates for its duration much like a regular division and is relatively independent of any other division or staff group." (Executive Sciences Institute, Operations Research/Management Science Vol 6, 1964)

"Probably the most neglected area in systems analysis involves the planning and control of the project, especially those projects requiring automation. More than one disastrous project has been launched by 'computer people' who communicated their aims to the vexed manager using technical data processing jargon in lieu of specific lists of easily understood tasks, schedules, and costs. This problem applies equally to in-house projects or those requiring the services of outside consultants. Each project must first be planned in detail. Control is involved with comparing actual progress with the plan and taking corrective action when the two do not correspond. Without the plan, true control is not possible; the need for corrective action, its nature, extent, and urgency cannot be accurately determined." (Robert D Carlsen & James A Lewis, "The Systems Analysis Workbook: A complete guide to project implementation and control", 1973)

"Project management is the process by which it is assured that the objective is achieved and resources are not wasted. Planning is one of the two parts of project management. Control is the other." (Robert D Carlsen & James A Lewis, "The Systems Analysis Workbook: A complete guide to project implementation and control", 1973)

"Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, project management utilises the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific project (the horizontal hierarchy)." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management for Executives", 1982)

"Control cannot be achieved through micromanaging." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Control is exercised by comparing progress against planned performance, and taking steps to correct for any deviations from the proper course." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"If you have no plan, you cannot have control, by definition, because it is your plan that tells where you are supposed to be in the first place. Further, if you don’t know where you are, you can’t have control. This comes from your information system. Most organizations have difficulties with both of these." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"In any system of humans or machines, the element in the system that has the greatest variability in its behavior will control the system." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Success or failure of a project depends upon the ability of key personnel to have sufficient data for decision-making. Project management is often considered to be both an art and a science. It is an art because of the strong need for interpersonal skills, and the project planning and control forms attempt to convert part of the 'art' into a science." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"The entire reason for managing a project is to make sure you get the results desired by the organization. This is commonly called being in control, and it is what is expected of a project manager." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Don't intentionally underestimate. The penalty for underestimation is more severe than the penalty for overestimation. Address concerns about overestimation through planning and control, not by biasing your estimates." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"The primary purpose of software estimation is not to predict a project's outcome; it is to determine whether a project's targets are realistic enough to allow the project to be controlled to meet them." (Steve McConnell, "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art", 2006)

"A project is usually considered a failure if it is late, is over budget, or does not meet the customer’s expectations. Without the control that project management provides, a project is more likely to have problems with one of these areas. A problem with only one constraint (scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality, and risk) can jeopardize the entire project." (Sandra F Rowe, "Project Management for Small Projects" 3rd Ed., 2020)

👷🏻Kevin Forsberg - Collected Quotes

"A model is a representation of the real thing used to depict a process, investigate an opportunity or a risk, or evaluate an attribute. Properly constructed models are valuable tools because they focus attention on critical issues while stripping away less important details that tend to obscure what is needed to understand and to manage. Because they idealize a complex situation, a variety of different models can be constructed to represent the same situation. A useful model will be simple, but it must retain the essence of the situation to be managed [...]" (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Being temporary, projects often bring together people unknown to each other. The newly formed group usually includes specialists motivated by the work itself and by their individual contributions. Teams of highly skilled technicians can make costly errors - even fatal ones - simply because the members fail to understand or internalize a systematic approach for applying best practices to project management. A major factor critical to project success is the availability of an effective and intuitive management process - one the group will quickly buy into and build their team upon." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Developers often focus on what is possible technically regardless of the constraints of cost, a limiting schedule, or what the customer requires." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Failure usually results from a lack of a common approach to accomplish the work as a team. Inadequate leadership fails to create the environment in which teams can flourish. Furthermore, potential team members are seldom trained in how to share their efforts to accomplish team goals. The team may also assume they know more about teamwork than they actually do. So we need to be able to differentiate between superficial teamwork and the real thing." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"In project management there are two levels of opportunities and risks. Because a project is the pursuit of an opportunity, the first category, the macro opportunity, is the project opportunity itself. The approach to achieving the project opportunity and the mitigation of associated project-level risks are structured into the strategy and tactics of the project cycle, the selected decision gates, the teaming arrangements, key personnel selected, and so on. The second level encompasses the tactical opportunities and risks within the project that become apparent at lower levels of decomposition and as project cycle phases are planned and executed. This can include emerging, unproven technology; incremental and evolutionary methods that promise high returns; and the temptation to circumvent proven practices in order to deliver better, faster, and cheaper." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Opportunities and risks are endemic to the project environment. However well planned a project may be, there will always be residual project risk." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Project failures can frequently be traced to unrealistic technical, cost, or schedule targets. Such targets may be entirely arbitrary or based on bad assumptions - setting team members up for failure. Furthermore, the goals that motivate one team member may not motivate another member. All tasks don’t have to be inherently motivating - that’s not sensible. But there have to be motivating factors, if by nothing more than participating in goal determination. This also helps ensure adequate opportunity and risk identification, analysis, and management." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"The appropriate models help avoid costly errors that can lead to failure. One of the major sources of project failure is f lawed requirements and scope management. Models of the project environment, therefore, need to address the development and management of project requirements. Continuing to work on the project solution with an insufficient understanding of stakeholder requirements and a deficient requirements development process often leads to expensive time delays and redesigns. This doesn’t have to be the case. A strong requirements development and management process model can provide that ounce of prevention." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"When we pursue opportunity, we normally incur risk. The opportunity to experience the thrill of an exciting sport like hang gliding or scuba diving brings with it the attendant risks. Many people instinctively make the trade that the thrill is worth the risks. Others decline." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"When we fail to grasp the systemic source of problems, we are left to treat symptoms rather than eliminate underlying causes. Without systemic thinking, the best we can ever do is adapt or react. Systems thinking, powered by visual models, stimulates creative - rather than adaptive - behavior. [...] To benefit from systems thinking, the project team needs to extend that viewpoint upward to the bigger picture of the project’s overall environment."(Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

🚧Project Management: Project Management [PM] (Definitions)

"Project Management is an approach which has been developed and successfully employed for more than a decade to systematically plan and control efforts which have an identifiable end item, the production of which involves complexity, risk and some sort of a fixed deadline." (G F Blanchard & D L Cook, "Project Management and Educational Change", 1973)

"Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, project management utilises the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific project." (Harold Kerzner, "Project Management for Executives", 1982)

"Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of the particular project. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to achieve a particular aim." (Irene Chen, "Instructional Design Methodologies", 2008)

"The act of planning and managing a series of tasks and agreed-upon deliverables. It is based on standard methods and processes." (Steven Haines, "The Product Manager's Desk Reference", 2008)

"The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements." (Cynthia Stackpole, "PMP® Certification All-in-One For Dummies®", 2011)

"The process of managing a project. Deploys tools, processes and attitudes that deal with the complexity and uncertainty inherent in a project." (Mike Clayton, "Brilliant Project Leader", 2012)

"A profession in the programmatic sciences that focuses on the design and completion of work plans to ensure the efficient delivery of specified work products on time, on budget, and to specifications. Project management is practiced by project managers who apply professional knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to ensure the effective management of operational uncertainty and the resolution of operational complexity." (Richard J Heaslip, "Managing Complex Projects and Programs", 2014)

"The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements." (PMI, "Implementing Organizational Project Management: A Practice Guide", 2014)

"The process of managing required project activities and tasks in a formal manner to complete a project; performed primarily by the project manager." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"Project management is the application of methods, tools, techniques and competencies to a project. Project management includes the integration of the various phases of the project life cycle [...]" (ISO 25000)

🚧Project Management: Success (Just the Quotes)

"Project management is needed only for situations which are out of the ordinary; but when the need exists, this may often be the only way by which the task may be handled successfully. These situations require a different attitude on the part of the top management, the undivided attention of a project manager and different methods for control and communications than those used in the normal routine business situation. […] Pure project management assigns complete responsibility for the task and resources needed for its accomplishment to one project manager. The organization of a large project, though it will be dissolved upon completion of the task, operates for its duration much like a regular division and is relatively independent of any other division or staff group." (Executive Sciences Institute, Operations Research/Management Science Vol 6, 1964)

"Basic to successful project management is recognizing when the project is needed - in other words, when to form a project, as opposed to when to use the regular functional organization to do the job." (David I Cleland & William R King, Systems Analysis and Project Management, 1968)

"Software projects fail for one of two general reasons: the project team lacks the knowledge to conduct a software project successfully, or the project team lacks the resolve to conduct a project effectively." (Steve C McConnell, "Software Project Survival Guide", 1997)

"Success in all types of organization depends increasingly on the development of customized software solutions, yet more than half of software projects now in the works will exceed both their schedules and their budgets by more than 50%." (Barry Boehm, "Software Cost Estimation with Cocomo II", 2000)

"Choosing a proper project strategy can mean the difference between success and failure." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"No project can succeed when the team members have no commitment to the plan, so the first rule of project planning is that the people who must do the work should help plan that part of the project. You will not only gain their commitment to the plan, but also most likely cover all of the important issues that you may individually have forgotten."(James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Project failures are not always the result of poor methodology; the problem may be poor implementation. Unrealistic objectives or poorly defined executive expectations are two common causes of poor implementation. Good methodologies do not guarantee success, but they do imply that the project will be managed correctly." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Success or failure of a project depends upon the ability of key personnel to have sufficient data for decision-making. Project management is often considered to be both an art and a science. It is an art because of the strong need for interpersonal skills, and the project planning and control forms attempt to convert part of the 'art' into a science." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Successful software development is a team effort - not just the development team, but the larger team consisting of customer, management and developers. [...] Every software project needs to deliver business value. To be successful, the team needs to build the right things, in the right order, and to be sure that what they build actually works." (Ron Jeffries, "Extreme Programming Installed", 2001)

"The only truly successful project is the one that delivers what it is supposed to, gets results, and meets stakeholder expectations." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"A project is composed of a series of steps where all must be achieved for success. Each individual step has some probability of failure. We often underestimate the large number of things that may happen in the future or all opportunities for failure that may cause a project to go wrong. Humans make mistakes, equipment fails, technologies don't work as planned, unrealistic expectations, biases including sunk cost-syndrome, inexperience, wrong incentives, contractor failure, untested technology, delays, wrong deliveries, changing requirements, random events, ignoring early warning signals are reasons for delays, cost overruns and mistakes. Often we focus too much on the specific project case and ignore what normally happens in similar situations (base rate frequency of outcomes- personal and others)." (Peter Bevelin, "Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger", 2003)

"Risks and benefits always go hand in hand. The reason that a project is full of risk is that it leads you into uncharted waters. It stretches your capability, which means that if you pull it off successfully, it's going to drive your competition batty. The ultimate coup is to stretch your own capability to a point beyond the competition's ability to respond. This is what gives you competitive advantage and helps you build a distinct brand in the market." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects", 2003)

"Data migration is indeed a complex project. It is common for companies to underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete the data conversion successfully. Data quality usually suffers because it is the first thing to be dropped once the project is behind schedule. Make sure to allocate enough time to complete the task maintaining the highest standards of quality necessary. Migrate now, clean later typically leads to another source of mistrusted data, defeating the whole purpose of MDM." (Dalton Cervo & Mark Allen, "Master Data Management in Practice: Achieving true customer MDM", 2011)

"Stakeholder management to me is key, as success or failure is in the eye of the beholder. Time, cost and quality fall prey to the perceptions of the key stakeholders, who may have nothing to do with the running of the project." (Peter Parkes, "NLP for Project Managers", 2011)

"[...] consistently good project results are hard to come by, yet most organisations continue to think they’re doing a great job. It’s got to the stage where project failure has become so commonplace that we’ve started to see it as success, or we just aren’t seeing clearly at all." (Tony Martyr, "Why Projects Fail", 2018)

♜Strategic Management: Maturity (Definitions)

"The extent to which an organization has explicitly and consistently deployed processes that are documented, managed, measured, controlled, and continually improved. Organizational maturity may be measured via appraisals." (Sandy Shrum et al, "CMMI®: Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement", 2003)

[process maturity:] "The extent to which an organization’s processes are defined, managed, measured, controlled, and continually improved. Process maturity implies continued improvement in the organization’s capability for performing its business activities, and indicates consistency in performing its processes throughout the organization." (Sally A Miller et al, "People CMM: A Framework for Human Capital Management 2nd Ed.", 2009)

[Organizational Project Management Maturity Model:] "A framework that defines knowledge, assessment, and improvement processes, based on Best Practices and Capabilities, to help organizations measure and mature their portfolio, program, and project management practices." (Project Management Institute, "Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) 3rd Ed", 2013)

[Project Management Maturity:] "Project management processes measured by the ability of an organization to successfully initiate, plan, execute, and monitor and control individual projects. Project management maturity is limited to individual project execution and doesn't address key processes, Capabilities, or Best Practices at the organizational, portfolio, or program level. The focus of project management maturity is 'doing projects right'." (Project Management Institute, "Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) 3rd Ed", 2013)

[Organizational Project Management Maturity:] "The level of an organization’s ability to deliver the desired strategic outcomes in a predictable, controllable, and reliable manner." (For Dummies, "PMP Certification All-in-One For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"Within OPM3, maturity comprises not only the state of performance within portfolio, program, and project management, but also the organization's evolution toward that state as illustrated by SMCI." (Project Management Institute, "Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) 3rd Ed., 2013)

"A measurement of the ability of an organization to undertake continuous improvement in a particular discipline." (Yassine Maleh et al, 'Strategic IT Governance and Performance Frameworks in Large Organizations", 2019)

"In relation to organizations or activities, the level of sophistication or development of a specific program or activity." (Sally-Anne Pitt, "Internal Audit Quality", 2014)

"(1) The capability of an organization with respect to the effectiveness and efficiency of its processes and work practices. (2) The capability of the software product to avoid failure as a result of defects in the software. [ISO 9126] See also reliability." (SQA)

"Measure of the reliability, efficiency and effectiveness of a process, function, etc." (ITIL)

🚧Project Management: Risk (Just the Quotes)

"But the greater the primary risk, the safer and more careful your secondary assumptions must be. A project is only as sound as its weakest assumption, or its largest uncertainty." (Robert Heller, "The Naked Manager: Games Executives Play", 1972)

"Today, most project management practitioners focus on planning failure. If this aspect of the project can be compressed, or even eliminated, then the magnitude of the actual failure, should it occur, would be diminished. A good project management methodology helps to reduce planning failure. Today, we believe that planning failure, when it occurs, is due in large part to the project manager’s inability to perform effective risk management." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Risks and benefits always go hand in hand. The reason that a project is full of risk is that it leads you into uncharted waters. It stretches your capability, which means that if you pull it off successfully, it's going to drive your competition batty. The ultimate coup is to stretch your own capability to a point beyond the competition's ability to respond. This is what gives you competitive advantage and helps you build a distinct brand in the market." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects", 2003)

"The business of believing only what you have a right to believe is called risk management." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects", 2003)

"In project management there are two levels of opportunities and risks. Because a project is the pursuit of an opportunity, the first category, the macro opportunity, is the project opportunity itself. The approach to achieving the project opportunity and the mitigation of associated project-level risks are structured into the strategy and tactics of the project cycle, the selected decision gates, the teaming arrangements, key personnel selected, and so on. The second level encompasses the tactical opportunities and risks within the project that become apparent at lower levels of decomposition and as project cycle phases are planned and executed. This can include emerging, unproven technology; incremental and evolutionary methods that promise high returns; and the temptation to circumvent proven practices in order to deliver better, faster, and cheaper." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"Opportunities and risks are endemic to the project environment. However well planned a project may be, there will always be residual project risk." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"When we pursue opportunity, we normally incur risk. The opportunity to experience the thrill of an exciting sport like hang gliding or scuba diving brings with it the attendant risks. Many people instinctively make the trade that the thrill is worth the risks. Others decline." (Kevin Forsberg et al, "Visualizing Project Management: Models and frameworks for mastering complex systems" 3rd Ed., 2005)

"For most projects there will be many sources of risk. Assumptions that seem quite reasonable at the start of a project may be proven otherwise if and when conditions in internal or external environments change during the project duration." (Roger Jones & Neil Murra, "Change, Strategy and Projects at Work", 2008)

"Routine tasks are, by their nature, familiar to us. The outcomes of performing routine tasks are therefore usually highly predictable. Project work by contrast includes elements of risk and uncertainty associated with the uniqueness and unfamiliarity of some of the work or the context in which it is carried out. Murphy’s Law expresses a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ but fallacious certainty of things going wrong, if it is possible for them to go wrong." (Roger Jones & Neil Murra, "Change, Strategy and Projects at Work", 2008)

"Whilst culture can help create a sense of belonging and shared destiny, it can also prove to be an obstacle to change especially where the existing culture is risk averse or if the change strategy is perceived by some to challenge prevailing group values. Where radical change is proposed, the achievement of cultural change may actually be a major objective of the proposed change." (Roger Jones & Neil Murra, "Change, Strategy and Projects at Work", 2008)

"A project is usually considered a failure if it is late, is over budget, or does not meet the customer’s expectations. Without the control that project management provides, a project is more likely to have problems with one of these areas. A problem with only one constraint (scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality, and risk) can jeopardize the entire project." (Sandra F Rowe, "Project Management for Small Projects" 3rd Ed., 2020)

♜Strategic Management: Stakeholder (Definitions)

"In the CMMI Product Suite, a group or individual that is affected by or is in some way accountable for the outcome of an undertaking. Stakeholders may include project members, suppliers, customers, end users, and others." (Sandy Shrum et al, "CMMI®: Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement", 2003)

"Individuals and organizations that are involved in or possibly affected by the data warehouse project activities." (Margaret Y Chu, "Blissful Data ", 2004)

"Someone with an interest in the outcome of a project, either because he or she has funded it, will use it, or will be affected by it." (Ken Schwaber, "Agile Project Management with Scrum", 2004)

"A group or individual affected by, or in some way accountable for, the outcome of an activity or process. Stakeholders may include the project team, suppliers, customers, purchasers, end users, and others." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"a role that is concerned with the quality and content of a work product." (Bruce P Douglass, "Real-Time Agility: The Harmony/ESW Method for Real-Time and Embedded Systems Development", 2009)

"Anyone who has a stake in technical training, is affected by technical training or the problem it will address, or can assist with technical training." (Bettina M Davis & Wendy L Combsand, "Demystifying Technical Training: Partnership, Strategy, and Execution", 2009)

"Person or organization (e.g., customer, sponsor, performing organization, or the public) that is actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. A stakeholder may also exert influence over the project and its deliverables." (Project Management Institute, "Practice Standard for Project Estimating", 2010)

"An organization, person, process, or system that can be affected by a change to a system or process." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"An individual participant or member of a business function, department, or group charged with, and responsible for, performing tasks or activities as part of a business process." (Carl F Lehmann, "Strategy and Business Process Management", 2012)

"An individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio." (Project Management Institute, "The Standard for Portfolio Management" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"Any individual, group, or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by an initiative (program, project, activity, risk)." (Paul C Dinsmore et al, "Enterprise Project Governance", 2012)

"Any person with a vested interest in the project. Project stakeholders include the project sponsor, project manager, team members, and end users of the project result." (Bonnie Biafore & Teresa Stover, "Your Project Management Coach: Best Practices for Managing Projects in the Real World", 2012)

"Anyone with an interest in your project – whether affected by its outcome or process, or with an ability to affect its outcome or process." (Mike Clayton, "Brilliant Project Leader", 2012)

"Individuals who have varying levels of commitment to a project or program for a given community or setting." (Carol A Brown, "Using Logic Models for Program Planning in K20 Education", 2013)

"Any individual or entity that has an influence on or is being impacted upon (directly or indirectly) by the project." (Chartered Institute of Building, "Code of Practice for Project Management for Construction and Development, 5th Ed.", 2014)

"Any party who affects, or is affected by, a project or activity (within and external to an organization). For an internal audit function, stakeholders include the board and audit committee, chief executive office, senior management, audit clients, and the external auditors." (Sally-Anne Pitt, "Internal Audit Quality", 2014)

"Individual, team, or organization that has an interest in or is affected by the result of architectural change." (Gilbert Raymond & Philippe Desfray, "Modeling Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF", 2014)

"Someone that has a vested interest in a project. Stakeholders are often high-level managers or executives with authority to resolve problems within a project." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"A stakeholder is someone with an interest in the future of a business, enterprise, or organization, and usually includes individual customers, borrowers, depositors, investors, employees, shareholders, regulators, and the public." (Christopher Donohue et al, "Foundations of Financial Risk: An Overview of Financial Risk and Risk-based Financial Regulation, 2nd Ed", 2015)

"Someone who has a stake in the outcome of the project. Typically, this includes users, customers (if those are different from users), sponsors, managers, and development team members." (Rod Stephens, "Beginning Software Engineering", 2015)

"Any person or organization who is affected by the opportunity and who can affect the shape of the opportunity itself." (Paul H Barshop, "Capital Projects", 2016)

"A person in the organization who has a vested interest in a project or activity and the outcomes." (Jonathan Ferrar et al, "The Power of People: Learn How Successful Organizations Use Workforce Analytics To Improve Business Performance", 2017)

"A person, a group, or an organization that has interest or concern in an organization. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by an organization’s actions, objectives, and policies. Some examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources." (William Stallings, "Effective Cybersecurity: A Guide to Using Best Practices and Standards", 2018)

"An individual, group, or organization that may affect or be affected by project work, including decisions, activities, and outcome or deliverables. This applies to a project, program, and portfolio." (Cate McCoy & James L Haner, "CAPM Certified Associate in Project Management Practice Exams", 2018)

"In software development, a stakeholder is a person who has a vested interest in the software being developed. For example customers and users are stakeholders." (Alex Thomas, "Natural Language Processing with Spark NLP", 2020)

"a person or organisation that can affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by a decision or activity" (ISO Guide 73:2009)

"all people who have interest in an organization, project, service, etc." (ITIL)

"Any person who has an interest in an IT project. Project stakeholders are individuals and organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be affected as a result of project execution or project completion. Stakeholders can exercise control over both the immediate system operational characteristics, as well as over long-term system lifecycle considerations (such as portability, lifecycle costs, environmental considerations, and decommissioning of the system)." (IQBBA)

🏗️Software Engineering: Methodology (Just the Quotes)

"The obsession with methodologies in the workplace is another instance of the high-tech illusion. It stems from the belief that what really matters is the technology. [...] Whatever the technological advantage may be, it may come only at the price of a significant worsening of the team's sociology." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware", 1987)

"The future prospects of management science will be much enhanced if (a) the diversity of issues confronting managers is accepted, (b) work on developing a rich variety of problem-solving methodologies is undertaken, and (c) we continually ask the question: 'What kind of issue can be managed with which sort of methodology?'." (Robert L Flood & Michael C Jackson, "Creative Problem Solving: Total Systems Intervention", 1991)

"As systems became more varied and more complex, we find that no single methodology suffices to deal with them. This is particularly true of what may be called information intelligent systems - systems which form the core of modern technology. To conceive, design, analyze and use such systems we frequently have to employ the totality of tools that are available. Among such tools are the techniques centered on fuzzy logic, neurocomputing, evolutionary computing, probabilistic computing and related methodologies. It is this conclusion that formed the genesis of the concept of soft computing." (Lotfi A Zadeh, "The Birth and Evolution of Fuzzy Logic: A personal perspective", 1999)

"A methodology is the conventions that your group agrees to. 'The conventions your group agrees to' is a social construction." (Alistair Cockburn, "Agile Software Development", 2001)

"A methodology should be as simple as possible to get the job done. If you make the requirements a burden, rather than a help, then people will resist following them. You want to achieve a consistent, workable approach to managing projects, not hang a noose around the manager’s neck." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"A project methodology must unambiguously specify what a manager must do to document, execute, and control a project. It must also specify what approvals are needed for various actions, such as procurement, changes to plan, budget variances, risks, and so on. It should tell who is responsible for various aspects of the project, and should spell out the limits of each stakeholder’s authority, responsibility, and accountability." (James P Lewis, "Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control" 3rd Ed., 2001)

"Project failures are not always the result of poor methodology; the problem may be poor implementation. Unrealistic objectives or poorly defined executive expectations are two common causes of poor implementation. Good methodologies do not guarantee success, but they do imply that the project will be managed correctly." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Today, most project management practitioners focus on planning failure. If this aspect of the project can be compressed, or even eliminated, then the magnitude of the actual failure, should it occur, would be diminished. A good project management methodology helps to reduce planning failure. Today, we believe that planning failure, when it occurs, is due in large part to the project manager’s inability to perform effective risk management." (Harold Kerzner, "Strategic Planning for Project Management using a Project Management Maturity Model", 2001)

"Agile development methodologies promise higher customer satisfaction, lower defect rates, faster development times and a solution to rapidly changing requirements. Plan-driven approaches promise predictability, stability, and high assurance. However, both approaches have shortcomings that, if left unaddressed, can lead to project failure. The challenge is to balance the two approaches to take advantage of their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses." (Barry Boehm & Richard Turner, "Observations on balancing discipline and agility", Agile Development Conference, 2003)

"Design is heuristic. Dogmatic adherence to any single methodology hurts creativity and hurts your programs." (Steve C McConnell, "Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction" 2nd Ed., 2004)

"A project life cycle represents the highest-level project management approach, depicted as a series of periods and phases, each with a defined output. A project life cycle can be documented with a methodology, which is a system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline." (Kathleen B Hass, "Professionalizing Business Analysis: Breaking the Cycle of Challenged Projects", 2007)

"Methodologies provide guidelines for the application development process. They specify analysis and design techniques as well as the stages in which they occur. They also develop event sequencing. Lastly, they specify milestones and work products that must be created and the appropriate documentation that should be generated." (Charles D Tupper, "Data Architecture: From Zen to Reality", 2011)

"Effective project and program management involves more than strict adherence to a prescriptive methodology. Leadership skills, judgement, common sense, initiative, effective communication, negotiation skills and a broad perspective on the surrounding environment are all essential. Project and program management is a creative and collaborative process." (Peter Shergold, "Learning from Failure", 2015)

"No methodology can guarantee success. But a good methodology can provide a feedback loop for continual improvement and learning." (Ash Maurya, "Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth", 2016)

"Building a comprehensive problem-solving framework is about leveraging a structured methodology that allows you to frame problems systematically and solve problems creatively." (Pearl Zhu, "Problem Solving Master: Frame Problems Systematically and Solve Problem Creatively", 2017)

🚧Project Management: Work Breakdown Structure (Definitions)

"A deliverable-oriented grouping of project elements that organizes and defines the total work scope of the project. Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project work." (Timothy J  Kloppenborg et al, "Project Leadership", 2003)

"A method for breaking your project into component tasks and organizing your management structure." (Michael S Dobson, "The Juggler's Guide to Managing Multiple Projects", 2003)

"An arrangement of work elements and their relationship to each other and to the end product." (Sandy Shrum et al, "CMMI®: Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement", 2003)

"The process of dividing a project into manageable tasks and sequencing them to ensure a logical flow between tasks." (Lynne Hambleton, "Treasure Chest of Six Sigma Growth Methods, Tools, and Best Practices", 2007)

"A structured list of all activities and tasks required to complete a project." (Steven Haines, "The Product Manager's Desk Reference", 2008)

 "A work breakdown structure (WBS) is an arrangement of project elements consisting of deliverables or project phases. It structures and defines the overall project content and scope." (Lars Dittmann et al, "Automotive SPICE in Practice", 2008)

"A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. It organizes and defines the total scope of the project." (Project Management Institute, "Practice Standard for Project Estimating", 2010)

"A hierarchical diagram showing work broken down into smaller packages to facilitate estimating work and costs, and tracking progress." (Bonnie Biafore, "Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft® Project", 2011)

"An arrangement of work elements and their relationship to each other and to the end product [CMMI]." (International Qualifications Board for Business Analysis, "Standard glossary of terms used in Software Engineering", 2011)

"Formal tool that breaks the project (the work) down into a structure – allowing a firm inventory of tasks, in a logical hierarchy." (Mike Clayton, "Brilliant Project Leader", 2012)

"The framework in which the project goal is deconstructed into manageable, task-sized details called work packages to identify all work to be done to complete the project." (Bonnie Biafore & Teresa Stover, "Your Project Management Coach: Best Practices for Managing Projects in the Real World", 2012)

"A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables." (For Dummies, "PMP Certification All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Ed.", 2013)

"A task-oriented detailed breakdown of activities which organizes, defines, and graphically displays the total work to be accomplished in order to achieve the final objectives of a project. WBS breaks down the project into progressively detailed levels. Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of a project component. In CPM scheduling, the components at the lowest WBS level are used as activities to build the project schedule." (Christopher Carson et al, "CPM Scheduling for Construction: Best Practices and Guidelines", 2014)

"The planned work to take place in a project hierarchically decomposed into work packages of 80 hours or less." (Cate McCoy & James L Haner, "CAPM Certified Associate in Project Management Practice Exams", 2018)

"A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables." (Project Management Institute, "Practice Standard for Scheduling  3rd Ed.", 2019)

"An arrangement of work elements and their relationship to each other and to the end product." (CMMI)

🚧Project Management: Project Charter (Definitions)

"A document issued by senior management that formally authorizes the existence of a project. Provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities." (Timothy J  Kloppenborg et al, "Project Leadership", 2003)

"A document issued by an executive, project sponsor, or customer, announcing a project and delegating authority to the project manager." (Bonnie Biafore, "Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft® Project", 2011)

"A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of c a project, and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities." (Cynthia Stackpole, "PMP® Certification All-in-One For Dummies®", 2011)

"A statement of objectives, scope, and stakeholders or participants in a project or program." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"A document officially announcing an approved project. Distributed by the project sponsor, the charter identifies the project manager and the extent of the project manager's authority." (Bonnie Biafore & Teresa Stover, "Your Project Management Coach: Best Practices for Managing Projects in the Real World", 2012)

"a project management document that defines a project scope, objectives, benefits, assumptions, etc. May also identify team assignments, project sponsor, time and cost estimates and constraints, and areas that are out of scope." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"A document that formally authorizes a project to move forward. Having such a document reduces project cancellation risk due to lack of support or perceived value to the company. A charter documents the project's overall objectives and helps manage expectations of those involved." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"The project charter is the document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. It documents the high-level information on the project and on the product, service, or result the project is intended to satisfy." (Cate McCoy & James L Haner, "CAPM Certified Associate in Project Management Practice Exams", 2018)

🚧Project Management: Project Management (Just the Quips)

Change Management

"Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything."

"Change is inevitable - except from vending machines."

"If project content is allowed to change freely the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress."

"There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop."

Cost Management

"A project ain't over until the fat cheque is cashed."

"Fast - cheap - good: you can have any two."

"For a project manager overruns are as certain as death and taxes."

[Juhani's Law:] "The cost of a compromise will always be more than that of either of the uncompromised alternatives."

"The more ridiculous the deadline the more money will be wasted trying to meet it."

Project Execution

"Activity is not achievement."

"Furious activity does not necessarily equate to progress and is no substitute for understanding."

"Good control reveals problems early - which only means you'll have longer to worry about them."

"If it happens once it's ignorance, if it happens twice it's neglect, if it happens three times it's policy."

"If you can interpret project status data in several different ways, only the most painful interpretation will be correct."

"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."

"Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it."

"The person who says it will take the longest and cost the most is the only one with a clue how to do the job."

Project Managers

"A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager."

"All project managers face problems on Monday mornings - good project managers are working on next Monday's problems."

"Everyone asks for a strong project manager - when they get him they don't want him."

"Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when."

"Good project managers admit mistakes: that's why you so rarely meet a good project manager."

"Good project managers know when not to manage a project."

"If you're 6 months late on a milestone due next week but nevertheless really believe you can make it, you're a project manager."

"There are no good project managers - only lucky ones."

"Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager's imagination."

"Powerful project managers don't solve problems, they get rid of them."

"The most successful project managers have perfected the skill of being comfortable being uncomfortable."

"The most valuable and least used PHRASE in a project manager's vocabulary is "I don't know"."

"The most valuable and least used WORD in a project manager's vocabulary is "NO"."

Project Planning 

"A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected - a well planned project only twice as long as expected."

"A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and would anyway melt when heat is applied."

"A minute saved at the start is just as effective as one saved at the end."

"Any project can be estimated accurately (once it's completed)."

Fyfe's Laws: (1) Information necessitating a change in plans will be communicated to the planner after - and only after - the plans are complete. (2) The more innocuous the change in plans appears the great the change will actually be. (3) It is always simpler to start over from scratch than make changes in a plan already started. (4) The more carefully and painstakingly a sample is analyzed the greater the probability it will be found irrelevant.

"If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong."

"If everything seems to be going well, you obviously don't know what's going on.” (Edward Murphy)

"If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you haven't understood the plan."

"No plan ever survived contact with the enemy."

"If it wasn't for the 'last minute' nothing would get done."

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."

"If you don't plan, it doesn't work. If you do plan, it doesn't work either. Why plan!"

"If you fail to plan you are planning to fail."

"If you have time to do it over again, you'll never get away with doing it right the first time."

"If you want to make God laugh have a definite plan."

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can leave until the day after."

"People make a plan work, a plan alone seldom makes people work."

"Planning is an unnatural process, doing something is much more fun."

"Planning reduces uncertainty: you rule out at least one way the project could turn out."

"Planning without action is futile, action without planning is fatal."

"Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance."

"Some projects finish on time in spite of project management best practices."

"The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time the last 10% takes the other 90%."

"The more you plan the luckier you get."

"The nice thing about no planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression."

"The same work under the same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at ten different times."

"The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up."

"There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale."

"There's never enough time to do it right first time but there's always enough time to go back and do it again."

"To estimate a project, work out how long it would take one person to do it then multiply that by the number of people on the project."

"Warning: dates in the calendar are closer than you think."

Projects 

"A project gets a year late one day at a time."

"At some point in the project you're going to have to break down and finally define the requirements."

"At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out."

[Gordon's First Law:] "If a project is not worth doing at all, it's not worth doing well."

"If an IT project works the first time, it is wrong."

"No project has ever finished on time, within budget, to requirement - yours won't be the first to."

"Projects happen in two ways: a) Planned and then executed or b) Executed, stopped, planned and then executed."

"Projects don't all fail in the end, they fail at the beginning."

"The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale."

"There is no such thing as an IT project only business projects some of which happen to involve IT."

Risk Management

"A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning."

"If you don't attack the risks, the risks will attack you."

Senior Management

"Never underestimate the ability of senior management to buy a bad idea and fail to buy a good idea."

"The typical project sponsor would rather starts ten projects than complete one single project. (Vrisou van Eck)