Parkinson's Law in Project Management
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 the relationship between the bureaucracy of the British Civil Service and its workload. Parkinson describes how work is elastic in its demands on time. Work becomes more complex as to fill the time before completion. He uses the example of how the bureaucracy of the British Civil Service grew unrelated to the amount of work. The growth depended on two factors: (1) The Law of Multiplication of Subordinates and (2) The Law of Multiplication of Work. He formulated a mathematical formula to determine the increase in staff in any public administrative department.
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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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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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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.[4]
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Theory
Application
Limitations
Annotated bibliography
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Parkinson, C. Northcote (November 19, 1955) "Parkinson’s Law", The Economist. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
- ↑ Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica "C. Northcote Parkinson", Britannica. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kinser, J. (October 19, 2008). "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.
