MURPHY’S LAW AS APPLIED TO PROJECTS
If something can go wrong on a project it will.
Things tend to go from bad to worse.
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Every thing takes longer than you think.
Nothing ever gets built as schedule or within budget.
To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
All’s well that ends.
Sooner or later, the worst possible set of circumstances is bound to occur.
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the service man.
Firmness of delivery dates is inversely proportional to the tightness of the schedule.
The remaining work to finish in order to reach your goal increases as the dead line approaches.
An object or a piece of information when most needed will be the least available.
In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct beyond all need of checking is a mistake.
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause most disruption will go wrong.
Failures will not occur until the final inspection.
In addition, any project associated with computers will have following corollaries.
Any given program, when running is obsolete.
Any given program will expand to fill the available memory.
Undectable errors are infinite in their variety.
A computer program never does what you want, but only what you tell it to do.
Computers are unreliable but humans are worse.
Adding manpower to late software projects will make it later.
There is always one more bug.
PROVERBS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The same work under the same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at different times.
The most valuable and least used words in project manager’s vocabulary is “NO”.
You can con a sucker into committing an unreasonable deadline but you can’t bully him into meeting it.
You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating in nine women.
The more ridiculous the dead line, the more it costs to try to meet it.
The more desperate the situation, the more optimistic is the situate.
You can freeze the user’s specs but he won’t stop expecting.
What is not on paper has not been said.
No major project has ever installed on time, within budget, with the same staff that started it.
Project’s progress quickly until they become 90% complete; then they remain 90% complete for ever.
If the project content is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.
No major system is ever completely debugged; attempts to debug a system inevitably introduce new bugs that are even harder to find.
Project teams detest progress reporting because it vividly demonstrates their lack of progress.
Too few people on a project can’t solve the problems too many create.
Frozen specs. And the abominable snow man are alike; they are both myths, and they both melt when sufficient heat is applied.
The conditions attached to a promise, are forgotten, and the promise is remembered.
What you don’t know hurts you.
A user will tell you anything, you ask about – nothing more.
Of several possible interpretations of a communication, the least convenient one is the only correct one.
Perkinson and the Murphy are alive and well – in your project.
The End
If something can go wrong on a project it will.
Things tend to go from bad to worse.
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Every thing takes longer than you think.
Nothing ever gets built as schedule or within budget.
To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
All’s well that ends.
Sooner or later, the worst possible set of circumstances is bound to occur.
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the service man.
Firmness of delivery dates is inversely proportional to the tightness of the schedule.
The remaining work to finish in order to reach your goal increases as the dead line approaches.
An object or a piece of information when most needed will be the least available.
In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct beyond all need of checking is a mistake.
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause most disruption will go wrong.
Failures will not occur until the final inspection.
In addition, any project associated with computers will have following corollaries.
Any given program, when running is obsolete.
Any given program will expand to fill the available memory.
Undectable errors are infinite in their variety.
A computer program never does what you want, but only what you tell it to do.
Computers are unreliable but humans are worse.
Adding manpower to late software projects will make it later.
There is always one more bug.
PROVERBS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The same work under the same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at different times.
The most valuable and least used words in project manager’s vocabulary is “NO”.
You can con a sucker into committing an unreasonable deadline but you can’t bully him into meeting it.
You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating in nine women.
The more ridiculous the dead line, the more it costs to try to meet it.
The more desperate the situation, the more optimistic is the situate.
You can freeze the user’s specs but he won’t stop expecting.
What is not on paper has not been said.
No major project has ever installed on time, within budget, with the same staff that started it.
Project’s progress quickly until they become 90% complete; then they remain 90% complete for ever.
If the project content is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.
No major system is ever completely debugged; attempts to debug a system inevitably introduce new bugs that are even harder to find.
Project teams detest progress reporting because it vividly demonstrates their lack of progress.
Too few people on a project can’t solve the problems too many create.
Frozen specs. And the abominable snow man are alike; they are both myths, and they both melt when sufficient heat is applied.
The conditions attached to a promise, are forgotten, and the promise is remembered.
What you don’t know hurts you.
A user will tell you anything, you ask about – nothing more.
Of several possible interpretations of a communication, the least convenient one is the only correct one.
Perkinson and the Murphy are alive and well – in your project.
The End