Dear Readers, how many of these quotes ring true… 

- “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 little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning.”

- “A minute saved at the start is just as effective as one saved at the end.”

- “A problem shared is a buck passed.”

- “A project ain’t over until the fat cheque is cashed.”

- “A project gets a year late one day at a time.”

- “A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager.”

- “A two year project will take three years, a three year project will never finish ”

- “A user is somebody who tells you what they want the day you give them what they asked for.”

- “A user will tell you anything you ask about, but nothing more.”

- “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”

- “Activity is not achievement.”

- “All project managers face problems on Monday mornings - good project managers are working on next Monday’s problems.”

- “Any project can be estimated accurately (once it’s completed).”

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

- “At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out.”

- “Everyone asks for a strong project manager - when they get him they don’t want him.”

- “Feather and down are padding - changes and contingencies will be real events.”

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

- “Furious activity does not necessarily equate to progress and is no substitute for understanding.”

- “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.”

- “I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.”

- “If an IT project works the first time, it is wrong.”

- “If at first you don’t succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.”

- “If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong.”

- “If it can’t possibly go wrong, it will - O’Malley’s corollary to Murphy’s law.”

- “If it can go wrong it will - Murphy’s law.”

- “If it happens once it’s ignorance, if it happens twice it’s neglect, if it happens three times it’s policy.”

- “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.”

To read full list of quotes click here