love the blog though thanks!

@Rob, ha, isn’t it just too true :) As for keeping projects to a tight deadline and budget, wow, now there’s the ultimate project management question huh. In short, I’d say the key tips are to break down the project into tasks against the budget you have, identify tasks that you cant fit in and tell the client, de-scope features to fit the hours you can allocate to it, create a realistic schedule that you always revise and just keep real close to the project at all phases, pushing back the client whenever you have too.

There’s a whole blog post idea there huh ;) What are your top tips for achieving this?

@timothy, Glad you liked the kick off meeting section :)

@Karol @PMHut @heffe, thanks so much for your comments. I really enjoyed writing this post too.

Love the pictures differentiating a real Project Manager from a wannabe.

# If under budget, smile and tell the client you’re on track
# If on budget, smile and tell the client you’re on track

So true!

Question though – without the threat of imminent death, what are some effective techniques to keep a project tight to timescales and budget?