I heard a good comment by a project manager recently which led me to collect a list of Project Management Sayings. Enjoy.

“A wise man does not repeat his mistakes and he does not repeat another man’s mistakes”~ Confucious.

The best nine women cannot deliver a baby in one month.

Work expands to fill the Time

Cost expands to meet the Budget

Schedules are made to be broken

If it is not measurable it is not meaningful.

If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.

Write your deadlines with erasable markers

With enough budget, resources and time, you can do anything.

There are only 24 hours in a day.

Today you idiot proof it…tomorrow a new and improved idiot arrives

Launching a project without a plan, is like climbing a tree to catch a fish

Never confuse enthusiasm with competence.

Coming to a bad decision quickly is not effective management.

Never confuse motion with progress.

None of us are as dumb as all of us.

If you can’t convince them, then confuse them.

If you expect it, inspect it.

Your inability to plan is not my emergency.

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

A poorly planned project will take three times longer than expected – a well planned project only twice as long as expected.

Almost complete is not enough

Measure twice, cut once

Planning is everything and the plan is nothing

There are no good project managers – only lucky ones… the more you plan the luckier you get.

Re-establish work/life balance – begin a new crisis at home

There’s never time to plan, but there’s always time to do over

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

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

I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

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

It’s faster and cheaper to do it right the first time.

The only certainty in a project is change

I am definitely going to take a course on time management… just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.

A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it.

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.

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

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

I love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they go past.

Don’t be afraid to make a few mistakes….heck, even a broken clock is correct twice a day

Previously we would say, “You get what you pay for”. We should now be saying “You hope you get what you pay for.”

No matter how fast you are going, if you do not know where you are going

You always have time to do it right – regardless of the project schedule

You are in such hurry that you do not have time to put gasoline in your car.

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

On time, Under Budget, Meets Specs–Pick 2.

A fool with a tool is still a fool… Just a more productive one.

If wishes were horses, we’d be knee deep in it by now.

We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now capable of doing almost anything with nothing.

You learn something new every day, if you don’t plan carefully

An issue is a risk who’s time has come.

Given an unlimited budget and resources, an engineer will never finish a project.

Hooray!! We’ve got a plan!! – The plan will save us!!

Fast, Cheap and Accurate. Choose two.

Plan, execute and then blame the consultants.

It’s time to shoot the engineer and release the product.

Cheaper isn’t necessarily better.

Just because someone passes a test doesn’t mean they can drive.

You can have the best model in the world but if it takes hours of training to understand it, then it isn’t worth much

At some point, theory will go out the door and common sense must take over if a project is to succeed.