Project Management
Section • Database Strategy

Project Management

IT Project Management articles: Scrum, standup meetings, smart working, AI Manager, team management, freelance and IT consulting. Real cases from 30 years.

9 articles published in this section

I’ve seen project managers make senior developers cry in meetings. I’ve seen brilliant teams destroyed by PMs who confused authority with authoritarianism. I’ve seen software delivered “on time” that didn’t work, and multi-million euro projects that ended in nothing.

And I’ve seen the exact opposite: small, autonomous, respected teams — building solid systems in a fraction of the time and budget.

The difference was never technology. It was always the method.


After thirty years in this profession, I’ve understood one thing: people don’t give their best when they’re afraid. They give their best when they have trust.

Trust in the team. Trust in the process. Trust that if they make mistakes, they won’t be punished — they’ll be helped.

The project manager who works isn’t the one who controls, terrorises and counts hours. It’s the one who:

  • sets clear objectives and gives the team the freedom to achieve them
  • builds deep competencies and protects them from turnover
  • does team building every day, not once a year at the go-kart track
  • measures results, not hours in the office
  • uses smart working as a competitive advantage, not as a concession
  • when something goes wrong, stands in front of the team, not behind it

📊 How I work #

My approach is Scrum — but Scrum done properly, not the liturgy of post-it notes.

Scrum that works is based on a pact: radical transparency, shared responsibility, and autonomy in the “how”. The PM defines the what and the why. The team decides the how. Because those who write the code know better than anyone how to write it.

And this pact works even better with smart working. The daily standup? 15 minutes on a call. The sprint review? Screen sharing with the client, who sees the software — not slides. The retrospective? An hour where the team tells the truth, because there’s no PM two metres away staring them down.

I measure few things, but I measure them well:

MetricWhat it tells you
VelocityHow much the team delivers per sprint
Lead timeHow long from request to release
Bug escape rateHow many defects slip into production
Sprint goal success% of sprint goals achieved
Team happinessHow the team feels — the most important metric

The last one — team happiness — is the one traditional PMs never measure. A happy team isn’t a team that’s having fun. It’s a team that feels respected, heard and valued. And a team like that produces more. Not because they work more hours. Because they work better.


📚 What I write about here #

True stories, hard numbers and lessons learned. No textbook theory. Just what I’ve seen work — and what I’ve seen fail.

I write about artificial intelligence applied to workflow, IT consulting and its hidden costs, smart working as a competitive advantage. Every article comes from a real experience — mine.


No revolutions needed. Just precise choices, implemented with method.

And the ability to say “no” to those who sell you complexity when the solution is simple.

Latest articles

Project Management
Featured

5 rules I've seen work in project teams that hold

Project management: 5 rules observed in teams that hold under pressure. Psychological safety, bus factor, outcome vs output, knowledge transfer.

19 May 2026 12 min
More articles in this section
AI Manager and Project Management: when artificial intelligence enters the project
Project Management

AI Manager and Project Management: when artificial intelligence enters the project

AI Manager: the professional role that governs the impact of artificial intelligence on architectures, processes and people. Reflections from 30 years in IT.

Payment at 60-90-120 days: the Italian normality that doesn't exist in Europe
Project Management

Payment at 60-90-120 days: the Italian normality that doesn't exist in Europe

60-90-120 day payment terms in Italian IT consulting: comparison with European rules. DSO, EU directive 2011/7 and strategies for IT freelancers.

Bike vs Car in Rome: the morning that opened my eyes
Project Management

Bike vs Car in Rome: the morning that opened my eyes

Commuting in Rome: electric Brompton vs car. 18 minutes vs 50, €35 of parking saved per day. The sustainable mobility choice from a practical view.

Smart working in IT consulting: the numbers nobody wants to look at
Project Management

Smart working in IT consulting: the numbers nobody wants to look at

Smart working in IT consulting: economic and strategic analysis of remote work. Real numbers, KPIs, presenteeism and productivity compared to in-office.

When chaos becomes method: AI and GitHub to manage a project nobody wanted to touch
Project Management

When chaos becomes method: AI and GitHub to manage a project nobody wanted to touch

Project management with AI and GitHub: turning a chaotic project into a measurable workflow with issue tracking, code review and artificial intelligence.

Standup meetings: why they only work if they last 15 minutes
Project Management

Standup meetings: why they only work if they last 15 minutes

Scrum standup meetings: why only the 15-minute constraint makes them work. Timeboxing, parking lot and daily meeting rules that hold up over time.

The Yes-And technique: how I defused a meeting that was about to blow up
Project Management

The Yes-And technique: how I defused a meeting that was about to blow up

The Yes-And technique from improvisational theatre applied to conflict management in IT teams. Real case of a meeting that was about to blow up.

4 million euros, two multinationals, zero software: the true story of a failure foretold
Project Management

4 million euros, two multinationals, zero software: the true story of a failure foretold

Real project management case: insurance client spends 4 million euros on IT consulting and gets zero working software. Vendor lock-in lessons.

Explore other sections