Managing IT Projects: How to Pragmatically Deliver Projects for External Customers

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023

M. DąbrowskiManaging IT Projectshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9243-3_1

1. When Does a Project Really Start?

Marcin Dąbrowski¹  

(1)

Nowy Wiśnicz, Poland

 

Anything that begins well ends badly. Anything that begins badly ends worse.

—Pudder’s Law

According to most textbooks, a project starts when the contract is signed. After that there’s a short period of celebrating the success and overarching excitement. Within a week or two, a project manager is appointed and the organization gets down to work. The right departments select the people, domain experts are identified. However, several weeks pass and things start getting out of control, project management theory ...