While this may look like a confessional, this is a collection of 'worse practices' that I have either seen, done myself, averted at the last minute, or gotten to watch them go down in flames.

This will also skew heavily towards back-end problems that project managers get to face, because it's where I'm most comfortable and have the most interesting stories.

Audience participation encouraged.

I'll cover:

• Sales disasters that ended up making it into my life and never should have been here
• Discovery disasters that ended up making people crazy
• Methods of project management applied too vigorously and took the shine off everything
• Communication methods that ended up worse off than just saying nothing
• Ways to work 70 hours a week because you're just so valuable and no one could possibly do the same things that you do (So flexible!)
• How to mess up on billing
• Excellent celebrations for the Festival of the Last Minute