Parkinson's Law in Project Management

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Originally, Parkinson's Law described how a bureaucracy can grow unrelated to its actual workload because people make work for each other by complicating it. The growth of bureaucracy depends on two factors: (1) The Law of Multiplication of Subordinates and (2) The Law of Multiplication of Work. From statistical analyses, he determined the increase in staff per year to be around 5-7% independent of its workload. Based on this, he formulated a mathematical formula to determine the annual increase in staff in any public administrative department.<ref name="Essay" />
 
Originally, Parkinson's Law described how a bureaucracy can grow unrelated to its actual workload because people make work for each other by complicating it. The growth of bureaucracy depends on two factors: (1) The Law of Multiplication of Subordinates and (2) The Law of Multiplication of Work. From statistical analyses, he determined the increase in staff per year to be around 5-7% independent of its workload. Based on this, he formulated a mathematical formula to determine the annual increase in staff in any public administrative department.<ref name="Essay" />
 
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The tendency in work behaviour Parkinson's Law describes, is one of the reasons why projects are delayed. Parkinson’s Law explains the behavioural aspect of scheduling. According to Parkinson's Law, a person will spent all the available time to complete a task regardless of the tasks size. This results in inefficient use of time and effort. Project managers can use this to understand employees motivation for completing tasks. In project schedule management, this is valuable knowledge when estimating activity duration. The project manager should account for this tendency when scheduling to enhance productivity.
 
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<ref name="guide"> Project Management Institute, Inc. (September 22, 2017). "Chapter 6: Project Schedule Management". ''Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)'' (6th ed.). Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI). pp. 173–230. ISBN 978-1-5231-1232-6. </ref>
 
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To overcome Parkinson's Law, a project manager must set deadlines to ensure that a task only takes up the necessary time for completion.
 
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<ref name ="PMI"> Kinser, J. (October 19, 2008). [https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/ten-laws-project-management-literature-6968 "The top 10 laws of project management"]. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2008—North America, Denver, CO. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Retrieved 14 February 2021.</ref>
 
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Parkinson's Law can affect scheduling tools such as the Critical Path Method (CPM). If not properly managed, people will start activities on the latest start date and consume all float. All paths become critical and the entire schedule slips if one activity is late.<ref name ="PMI"> </ref> 
 
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== Theory ==
 
== Theory ==

Revision as of 20:38, 21 February 2021

Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.[1] It was formulated by British historian and author Cyril Northcote Parkinson in an essay for The Economist in 1955.[2]
Originally, Parkinson's Law described how a bureaucracy can grow unrelated to its actual workload because people make work for each other by complicating it. The growth of bureaucracy depends on two factors: (1) The Law of Multiplication of Subordinates and (2) The Law of Multiplication of Work. From statistical analyses, he determined the increase in staff per year to be around 5-7% independent of its workload. Based on this, he formulated a mathematical formula to determine the annual increase in staff in any public administrative department.[1]

Contents

Theory

Application

Limitations

Annotated bibliography

title

title

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Parkinson, C. Northcote (November 19, 1955) "Parkinson’s Law", The Economist. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  2. ↑ Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica "C. Northcote Parkinson", Britannica. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
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