Tom DeMarco

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

— Tom DeMarco

Organizational busy work tends to expand to fill the working day.

— Tom DeMarco

“Appearance is stressed far too much in workplace design. What is more relevant is whether the workplace lets you work or inhibits…

— Tom DeMarco

First law of Bad Management: If something isn't working, do more of it.

— Tom DeMarco

“On the best teams, different individuals provide occasional leadership, taking charge in areas where they have particular strengths. No one is the…

— Tom DeMarco

Some of the most flowery praise you hear on the subject of teams is only hypocrisy. Managers learn to talk a good…

— Tom DeMarco

“we don’t work overtime so much to get the work done on time as to shield ourselves from blame when the work…

— Tom DeMarco

If nothing is declared unchangeable, then the organization will resist all change.

— Tom DeMarco

“The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill…

— Tom DeMarco

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

— Tom DeMarco

“Very successful companies have never struck me as particularly busy; in fact, they are, as a group, rather laid-back. Energy is evident…

— Tom DeMarco

“In my early years as a developer, I was privileged to work on a project managed by Sharon Weinberg, later to become…

— Tom DeMarco

“Meaningful acts of leadership usually cause people to accept some short-term pain (extra cost or effort, delayed gratification) in order to increase…

— Tom DeMarco

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

— Tom DeMarco

“If nothing is declared unchangeable, then the organization will resist all change. When there is defining vision, the only way the organization…

— Tom DeMarco

The QSM Software Almanac is an invaluable resource. It establishes a norm for software projects, including best of class, worst of class…

— Tom DeMarco

“Today’s modular cubicle is a masterpiece of compromise: It gives you no meaningful privacy and yet still manages to make you feel…

— Tom DeMarco

“The best predictor of how much work a knowledge worker will accomplish is not the hours that he or she spends, but…

— Tom DeMarco

Craziness is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

— Tom DeMarco

Visual supervision is a joke for development workers. Visual supervision is for prisoners.

— Tom DeMarco

What we are looking for is managers who are awake enough to alter the world as they find it, to make it…

— Tom DeMarco

“If we proved anything at all, it’s that a policy of default on workplace characteristics is a mistake. If you participate in…

— Tom DeMarco

Get the right people. Then no matter what all else you might do wrong after that, the people will save you. That's…

— Tom DeMarco

“A disturbing possibility is that overtime is not so much a means to increase the quantity of work time as to improve…

— Tom DeMarco

“A single person acting alone is not likely to effect any meaningful change.”

— Tom DeMarco