Project Management Lesson from Carpenters

No, not the brother and sister duet, I'm talking about real carpenters. There's an age-old axiom used by carpenters: "Measure twice, cut once." Experienced carpenters know that there's no turning back if you made a mistake measuring once the wood is cut.

This is good advice for project managers as well. Many errors, and many hours of rework, can be avoided if you take the time up front to do the proper research, planning, and risk analysis. It's well worth checking your plan twice, even though circumstances are likely to cause you to deviate from the plan. But even those risks can be mitigated with proper research and meditation up front.

Just like carpentry, the later mistakes are caught, the more costly and devastating they are likely to be. It's better to spend a little extra time up front on your projects to increase the overall speed and success of the project.