"Murphy and Parkinson are alive and well - in your project."

Documentation

If it is not written down it has never been spoken.

Project manager

The most valuable word in a project manager's vocabulary, but the one most seldom used is "no".

Project team

Too few members in a team cannot solve a problem. Too many on the other hand create more problems than they can solve.

Time

The same work under the same circumstances will be evaluated differently by ten different project managers or by one project manager at ten different occasions.

You can convince a fool to accept an unreasonable target date, but you cannot force him to reach it.

The more ridiculous the target date, the higher the costs in trying to reach it.

Parkinson's law: Work increases to fill the time available to complete it.

Expectations

You can freeze a user's expectations, but it will not prevent him from expecting.

Frozen specifications and the "abominable snowman" are similar; both are myths and both melt if enough heat is applied.

The conditions of a promise are forgotten. The promise never.

Progress and status

Projects proceed smoothly until 90% of them have been completed. Then they remain 90% completed forever.

Project teams dislike progress reports, because progress reports illustrate their lack of progress.