CONOPS, projects, your business affairs and your life in general can benefit from the wisdom of our founding fathers, brought up to date here:

• Be plain-spoken and straightforward in all your dealings. Mean what you say and say what you mean.
  
  
• Expect to pay a fair price for good work (today that means following best practices; having a code of behavior with clear contracting principles and performance standards; managing expectations)
  
  
• Be honest: If you cannot do something, say so early and loudly
  
  
• If you don’t know the answer to a question, say “I don’t know”. It is refreshingly rare to hear and is the mark of an intellectually honest person, also a rarity.
  
  
• Don’t be clever, be smart: know what you need to know in your profession, in order to provide good service to all the others.
  
  
• Recognize bias toward other groups and eliminate it – we are all traveling
  this road together.