Resource Management Warning Flag 2 – Parkinson’s Law

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Parkinson’s Law
Wikipedia

There exists a tendency among workers to use all of the time allotted to perform a task even if the work can be done in a shorter period of time. Some organizations, through high accountability and managerial engagement, minimize the amount of lost time caused by unnecessary work expansion. In other organizations, however, a lack of managerial oversight and reinforcement of high performance standards allows the Thieves of Time to rob the organization of precious productivity.

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Additional Information

The following StrategyDriven recommended best practices are designed to promote high, performance-based activity time estimates:

• Resource Projection Best Practice 1 – Standardized Assumptions
• Resource Projection Best Practice 2 – Begin with the Work
• Resource Projection Best Practice 3 – Controlling Assumption Changes

Additional Resources

StrategyDriven Contributors recommend the following resource as a guide to the common methods used to estimate resource needs for an activity or project:

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition
by the Project Management Institute

About the Author

Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

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