Quotes from Tom DeMarco

Computer system analysis is like child-rearing; you can do grievous damage, but you cannot ensure success.

There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back.

The manager's function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.

The statistics about reading are particularly discouraging: The average software developer, for example, doesn't own a single book on the subject of his or her work, and hasn't ever read one.

wasn't as important as the act of changing. People were charmed by differentness, they liked the attention, they were intrigued by novelty. This has come to be called the Hawthorne Effect.

It's possible to make an organization more efficient without making it better. That's what happens when you drive out slack.

Managers who inspire extraordinary loyalty from their people tend to be highly charismatic, humorous, good-looking, and tall. So, by all means, strive to be those things. If you don't feel able to improve any of those factors very much, you might consider holding on to your people by designing a little slack into their lives.

Very successful companies have never struck me as particularly busy; in fact, they are, as a group, rather laid-back. Energy is evident in the workplace, but it's not the energy tinged with fear that comes from being slightly behind on everything.

It's easy (and fair) to blame lousy management on lousy managers. But it's not enough. It's also necessary to blame the people who allow themselves to be managed so badly.

Ownership of the standard should be in the hands of those who do the work.

Risk management is not the same as worrying about your project.

a friend even went so far as to work in the crypt below the American Library—yes, the crypt, complete with the remains of the woman who had endowed the building. It was cool, it was marble, and as my friend reported, it was quiet, very quiet.

Successful change can only come in the context of a clear understanding of what may never change, what the organization stands for. This is what Peter Drucker calls the organization's culture. Culture, as he uses the term, is that which cannot, will not, and must not change.

Whether you call it a "team" or an "ensemble" or a "harmonious work group" is not what matters;

what matters is helping all parties understand that the success of the individual is tied irrevocably to the success of the whole.

The need for uniformity is a sign of insecurity on the part of management. Strong managers don't care when team members cut their hair or whether they wear ties. Their pride is tied only to their staff's accomplishments

Count on the best people outperforming the worst by about 10:1. • Count on the best performer being about 2.5 times better than the median performer. • Count on the half that are better-than-median performers outdoing the other half by more than 2:1.

Today's modular cubicle is a masterpiece of compromise: It gives you no meaningful privacy and yet still manages to make you feel isolated.

Irony and sarcasm, pointed jabbing criticism, personal mockery, public humiliation, exasperation, managerial tantrums, eye-rolling: These are the true enemies of essential change. To make an organization change-receptive, you need to rout all of these various kinds of disrespect from the culture. Replace them with a clearly felt sense that people at all levels are to be honored for the struggle they've been willing to take on.

While this [10 to 1] productivity differential among programmers is understandable, there is also a 10 to 1 difference in productivity among software organizations

The person who fails is a hero, the backbone of the change effort. Failure gains that person more respect, not less.

Parents' Rule: Always give trust slightly in advance of demonstrated trustworthiness.

Here I see one pattern common to all the winners. The one mechanical practice they all have in common is this: They acquire trust by giving trust.

The average software developer, for example, doesn't own a single book on the subject of his or her work, and hasn't ever read one.