Extreme Project Management!

1. "The management of creative people and processes demands creative management processes." Project managers need soft skills that reflect the environment they're working in and the people they're working with.
2. "The less the project manager knows about the technical issues of the project, the better." The project manager should focus on business concerns and ensure that the necessary processes are in place so that the technical work can occur. In other words, managers manage.
3. "What happens after the project is more important than what happens during the project." Many traditional project managers ignore the post-development issues and costs to support and operate their systems. Agile project managers, however, consider a project's entire lifecycle.
4. "A project plan developed without full participation of stakeholders is nothing more than one person's fantasy." Planning is a team effort—it isn't something that a single person does using a sophisticated planning tool.
5. "The more time the project manager spends with the stakeholders, the better." Agile project managers focus on the organizational, social, political and financial aspects of a project.
6. "If you haven't defined project success at the start, you'll never achieve it at the end." Understanding the stakeholders' expectations is crucial for success. You should achieve stakeholder satisfaction; meet the functional needs, budget and deadlines; add value; meet quality requirements; and achieve team satisfaction.
7. "Show them the money—nothing else matters." The benefits your system provides should outweigh the costs.
8. "Stakeholders can be your best allies or worst enemies—you decide." Agile project managers know their stakeholders and their needs, and maintain effective relationships with them.
9. "If you can't predict the future, don't plan it in detail." Traditional project managers often assume that a primary aspect of their job is to develop a detailed project Gantt chart, but you can plan in detail only for the near term. Agile project managers know that they'll need to plan and then replan constantly.
10. "If your project hasn't changed, be afraid; very afraid." If your project isn't changing, it has probably slipped off track by "staying on track."
11. "In e-projects, a day is a long time." Change happens—sometimes very, very quickly.