The Mythical Man-Month
In 1975, Frederick Brooks, Jr. wrote The Mythical Man-Month. In the book, he refuted the common notion that a given task could be completed in less time if only more labor could be brought to bear against it. If a man-month is the number of hours that a human being can spend on a task in thirty days, then surely having more man-months would allow a task to be completed in less time.
Brooks writes that, unless a task can be partitioned among workers with no communication (like picking cotton), the application of more effort has less effect on the schedule than one might think. Simply put, there are projects that, no matter how many people you throw at them, just cannot be completed in less time. In one memorable example, he pointed out that you can’t have a baby in less than nine months by assigning three women to the task.
While Brook’s essays were based on observations about software engineering, the principles are applicable to other fields – even marketing, advertising and brand communications.
Our world works at lightning speed. With iPhones and Blackberrys we’re never disconnected. The expectation is that every communication will be answered in moments, and every project has an “I need it yesterday” deadline.
But at what point do we need to slow down, take a breath and admit that sometimes it takes a little time to do the best work? That throwing a bunch of people on the project does not make up for lack of time? And that sometimes in order to get the desired results, you have to follow a process and not cut corners for the sake of getting it done faster.
Certainly it’s important to be flexible, nimble, and responsive. But isn’t it time we all slowed down for just a moment and gave ourselves time to think?
Tags: deadlines, project management, timelines