Parkinson's Law and Its Implications for Project Management

Gutiérrez, Genaro J.; Kouvelis, Panos

doi:10.1287/mnsc.37.8.990

Cited by 76 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The data show that the governing influence may not be the methodology, but the business model which includes market and business constraints imposed on schedules, tasks, and resources. We also found that two business model related effects, Parkinson's Law [Parkinson (1957), Gutierrez (1991)] and the Deadline Effect [Boehm (1981), Borger et al (1991)], appear to be very important influences in commercial software development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

The effects of the business model on object-oriented software development productivity

Potok

Vouk

1997

IBM Syst. J.

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We intend to demonstrate that if the business model cannot adjust to new technology, by recognizing a) its limitations, b) the ability of the organization to control it, and c) by adjusting its deadlines to take advantage of the methodology potentials, it is unlikely that an investment in the technology will result in real productivity benefits.As software development cycles shorten, and software markets become more competitive, improved software development productivity continues to be a major concern in the software industry. Many believe that object-oriented technology provides a breakthrough solution to this problem, but there is little quantitative evidence for this belief. Furthermore, most studies related to object-oriented productivity do not consider it in conjunction with the business constraints under which the software is developed. Business models tend to focus on cost and calendar events and tend to form deadlines that are governed by marketing windows and pressures. In this paper we explore the relationship between the business model and the productivity that a software development methodology can achieve in a commercial environment. We first examine empirical data from several commercial products developed under the same business model and an iterative software development process. The results indicate that lack of incentives for early completion of intermediate project tasks, and a rigorous enforcement of final project deadlines, may trigger Parkinson's Law delays and negatively affect software development productivity, especially when projects are developed using object-oriented methods. We then model and simulate the impact of software task completion incentives and imposed deadlines on productivity that might be expected from potentially high-productivity technology, such as object-orientation. We show how and why some common business practices might lower project productivity and project completion probability. We also discuss to what extent poor software process control and/or use of immature technology compounds the problem.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 73%

The effects of the business model on object-oriented software development productivity

Potok

Vouk

1997

IBM Syst. J.

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“…In projects, workers are generally not incentivised to report early activities. Rather, they will effectively use up all time allotted to a given task by starting late by multitasking, shifting resources, or simply reporting the task as on-time (Gutierrez and Kouvelis 1991). Where in reality d ij =d ij < 1 might have been possible, it is more likely that d ij =d ij ¼ 1 will be reported.…”

Section: Focus On the Relative Duration Of Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Perspective on Activity Durations for Project-Management Simulation Studies

Colin

Vanhoucke

2016

J. Constr. Eng. Manage.

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Simulation has played an important role in project-management studies of the last decades, but in order for them to produce practical results, a realistic distribution model for activity durations is indispensable. The construction industry often has needed historical records of project executions, to serve as inputs to the distribution models, but a clearly outlined calibration procedure is not always readily available, nor are their results readily interpretable. This study seeks to illustrate how data from the construction industry can be used to derive realistic input distributions. Therefore, the Parkinson simulation model with a lognormal core is applied to a large empirical dataset from the literature and the results are described. From a discussion of these results, an empirical classification of project executions is presented. Three possible uses are presented for the calibration procedure and the classification in project management simulation studies. These were validated using a case study of a construction company.

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“…According to Guiterrez and Kouvelis (1991) the statement of Parkinson's Law, if the project staff feel there is plenty of time to complete it, they will slow down the pace of work or add some other works that will waste time allocated for the project and delay instead the deadlines for completing the project management. Also based on the "student syndrome" mentioned by Goldratt (1999) that the project staffs usually rush to work until the completion datelines approaching just like students who usually study hard until an examination approaching.…”

Section: Project Management Solution Of Tocmentioning

confidence: 99%

Schedule Planning for Repairing Power Supply System

Kang¹

2012

American Journal of Applied Sciences

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Problem statement: Taiwan is located in the tropical ocean areas. The strong typhoon in summer often causes the collapse of electric transmission towers and results in power outages that seriously affect people's lives and industrial production. Approach: In light of this situation, this study aims to employ project management techniques of Theory of Constraints (TOC) to develop a practical TOC model to quickly repair the towers and restore power supplied system. Results: The actual application had verified that the research model could not only shorten the duration of work but also save the manpower and material expenses. Conclusion: It once again proved the excellent results of reparation operations by applying TOC to project management.

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Parkinson's Law and Its Implications for Project Management

Cited by 76 publications

References 14 publications

The effects of the business model on object-oriented software development productivity

The effects of the business model on object-oriented software development productivity

Empirical Perspective on Activity Durations for Project-Management Simulation Studies

Schedule Planning for Repairing Power Supply System

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