While project management often focuses on management of the processes, information management and other work issues, one of the most important areas often overlooked IMHO is the physical environment and how it may improve efficiency of the project workers.
Joel Spolsky just moved is company to a new office and spent some time to figure out how to improve “developer workspaces”.
It quite an interesting read.
I don’t know how many (Internet development) projects I’ve been on, but it’s quite a lot through the years. One thing happening over and over again is that all the ambitious goals of the project isn’t quite reached before the launch – and something is either cut short or not quite as polished as it should have been. Lately I’ve been wondering weather this is the right approach. Many of the things you leave out when the deadline starts getting closer is “the finishing touch” – this is especially true for back-ends and other invisible details everywhere.