7 project lies that everyone has heard

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it or found it written in a report. People that run projects tend to lie and polish the words to sound fancy. Politicians do the same and running a project is also a political thing.

So, here is a summary of what you may hear and the real translation for those words.



1. Project Phrase: A status report about issue X will be sent every week till we can make up the slippage.
Translation: We don't have any idea about how to solve it and hope the client forgets by next week.

2. Project Phrase: We will work during the weekend to reduce the delay
Translation: Nobody will work over the weekend, but we don't want to send bad news on a Friday

3. Project Phrase: We will implement all the best practices in order to improve the quality of the deliverables
Translation: We will cut all the corners

4. Project Phrase: Auditors insist on implementing the whole process and all best practices.
Translation: People that don't work here want us to do the project more painful.

5. Project Phrase: We are from corporate and we are here to help you
Translation: Run as fast as you can. No translation needed.

6. Project Phrase: We had a communication problem
Translation: Someone screw this up but we cannot blame him/her. Most probably he/she is the customer or the boss.

7. Project Phrase: Our testing team doesn't have enough capacity to test the application and ensure product quality
Translation: Product quality is so bad that we spend the whole day dealing with new defects.


Please feel free to comment with the phrases you had heard and were a lie.