Norman Ralph Augustine Quotes

The most unsuccessful three years in the education of cost estimators appears to be fifth-grade arithmetic.

It costs a lot to build bad products

We believe in the wisdom once expressed by the hockey star Wayne Gretzky, who explained his success by saying, 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.'

Law Number XXXII: Hiring consultants to conduct studies can be an excellent means of turning problems into gold, your problems into their gold.

One cannot legislate problems out of existence. It has been tried.

For every scientific (or engineering) action, there is an equal and opposite social reaction.

Law Number XXIX: Executives who do not produce successful results hold on to their jobs only about five years. Those who produce effective results hang on about half a decade.

Regulations grow at the same rate as weeds.

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

Fools rush in where incumbents fear to tread.

A recent government publication on the marketing of cabbage contains, according to one report, 26,941 words. It is noteworthy in this regard that the Gettysburg Address contains a mere 279 words while the Lord's Prayer comprises but 67.

Law Number XIV: After the year 2015, there will be no airplane crashes. There will be no takeoffs either, because electronics will occupy 100 percent of every airplane's weight.

By the time the people asking the questions are ready for the answers, the people doing the work have lost track of the questions.

The optimum committee has no members.