10 Quotes by Norman Augustine

Never promise to complete a project within six months of the end of the year--in either direction.

Software is like entropy: It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the Second Law of Thermodynamics; i.e., it always increases.

One-tenth of the participants produce over one-third of the output. Increasing the number of participants merely reduces the average output.

If sufficient number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.

The most unsuccessful four years in the education of a cost-estimator is fifth grade arithmetic.

The average regulation has a life span one-fifth as long as a chimpanzee's and one-tenth as long as a human's - but four times as long as the official's who created it.

The last 10 percent of performance generates one-third of the cost and two-thirds of the problems.

In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.

In my view the organization has been far more successful than I dreamed it would be. But my view is also that it's still an unproved experiment.