Things project managers should remember
Hopefully, if some day I actually manage a project (or worse manage developers) I will not forget this.
The amount of effort required to ensure developers are productive is bigger than the lost effort from slackers unless the team self polices. Also it is sometimes more productive to let a poor developer slack than to force him to do something that will eventually put him in the way of more efficient developers (see what Jay Fields had to say about that).
When there is no buy in from the team, if put under pressure, the first thing that will drop is quality because everybody knows that the clients will magically find money to pay for the bug fixes (or the support) that they did not have before for development.
It is good to prepare communication privately but it has to come out eventually. When communication is not forthcoming vertically it spreads horizontally with rumours and nags. Pretty soon instead of open and candid communication channels you have mistrust and scepticism.
It is good to read a management book once in a while just as it is good to stay technologically sound when you are a developer.
I obviously have no scientific base to support all that I have a bit of empirical evidence.
