CodeQuotes » Project Management

Fred Brooks on specifications

Neal Enssle — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:11:48 +0000

“Even perfect program verification can only establish that a program meets its specification…. Much of the essence of building a program is in fact the debugging of the specification.”

— Fred Brooks, No Silver Bullet

Berkun: Calling bullshit

Neal Enssle — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:03:07 +0000

“Calling ‘bullshit’ makes things happen. If people expect you will ask them tough questions, and not hesitate to push them hard until you get answers, they will prepare for them before they meet with you. They will not waste your or your teams’ time.”

— Scott Berkun, The Art of Project Management

Berkun: Bad ideas

Neal Enssle — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:01:17 +0000

“I do not know where the phrase ‘there are no bad ideas’ came from, but I’m certain it’s wrong… I have incontrovertible evidence that there are an infinite number of awful, horrible, useless, comically stupid, and embarrassingly bad ideas”

— Scott Berkun, The Art of Project Management

Berkun: Thinking outside the box

Neal Enssle — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 12:55:48 +0000

“Do whatever you want with the box. Think in the box, out of the box, on the box under the box, tear apart and make a fire out of the box, whatever, as long as you manage to solve the problems identified as the goals for the projects.”

— Scott Berkun, The Art of Project Management

DeMarco: Measurement

Neal Enssle — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:55:51 +0000

“You can’t control what you can’t measure.”

— Tom DeMarco

Anonymous: Last minute panic

Neal Enssle — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 09:26:22 +0000

“If it wasn’t for the last minute panic, nothing would ever get done.”

— Anonymous

Boehm: Agile methods

Neal Enssle — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 12:01:47 +0000

“Agile methods derive much of their agility by relying on the tacit knowledge embodied in the team, rather than writing the knowledge down in plans.”

— Barry Boehm

Woodward: Defiance of management

Neal Enssle — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 12:06:34 +0000

“All good work is done in defiance of management.”

— Bob Woodward

McConnell: Managers, developers, and focus

Neal Enssle — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:17:29 +0000

“The job of the average manager requires a shift in focus every few minutes. The job of the average software developer requires that the developer not shift focus more often than every few hours.”

— Steve C. McConnell, Software Project Survival Guide

Douglas Adams: Deadlines

Neal Enssle — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:59:27 +0000

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

— Douglas Adams