Steve McConnell Quotes

I think projects often fail because people do not have a clear understanding at the start what they are trying to deliver.

Keep the team as small as possible. Having been on several of these mega-projects, they seem to grow magically. People are attracted to the project like moths to a flame.

If we're trying to build a world-class News Feed and a world-class messaging product and a world-class search product and a world-class ad system, and invent virtual reality and build drones, I can't write every line of code. I can't write any lines of code.

It was obviously a pretty hectic development schedule and we put a huge team on to it but it paid off because we continuously get complemented on the finished product.

This was a really big opportunity. This script was even mediocre. The idea was great, but Jay came on with his guys made it great and very specific. It all came together well.

You can't control the quality of projects that are coming to you, so if you get several in a row that are quality, you take them.

When you trust and have elevated personnel in each department, then the sky really is the limit. If you don't have that trust in the backbone of the project, you may not know what you're making.

In my experience, each project is what it is, and nothing is necessarily a turning point.

Projects are usually undertaken to either solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity. The probability that the project - even if precisely executed - will complete on time, on budget, and on performance is typically small. Project management is utilized to increase this probability. So in a sense, project management is risk management.

My Dad has been on board for the entire project. He has produced Hello' and made sure that everything is just right this time.

I need to thank my director, producers, and artists as well crew members of all my projects.

Nobody on Earth does a project by himself. So you have to make sure your team is intact.

Demarcation disputes between supervisor and student are always difficult, probably impossible to resolve... it is the supervisor who has the final responsibility for the success or failure of the project.

Keeping the risk management plan up to date can transform it from a door stop into a vital project management tool. Remember: what you don't know can kill your project.

More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined.

Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation.

One of the big lessons of a big project is you don't want people that aren't really programmers programming, you'll suffer for it!

Without an organisation that can work together, sometimes over a very long period, it's difficult to see new projects to fruition.

Producing is very much like running a business, where you find the project, you find the different people involved, you put the elements together, and you make sure they all work together well.

There's a saying in the software design industry: "Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two."

The fact of the matter is: when you're doing a project, you try to make it better every moment. And a lot of people get frustrated. But I surrounded myself with a good team of people and I'm really proud of the work we've all done. All I can say is - I've learned this in my business - don't let the process frustrate you; focus on the end. Because the end is pretty wonderful. Just fight it out.

It's harder than you might think to squander millions of dollars, but a flawed software development process is a tool well suited to the job.

You can give a great film idea to a mediocre team and they may screw it up, but if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will turn it into a great film.

The primary purpose of software estimation is not to predict a project's outcome; it is to determine whether a project's targets are realistic enough to allow the project to be controlled to meet them.

If you're going to fail, you'd rather fail early than fail late in general.