Parkinson’s Law: Expanding Gas

Its pretty common that if it takes a developer two weeks to complete a task, it will also take them three, four, five, or even six weeks – depending on how long you originally gave them. This is called Parkinson’s Law, and unfortunately, it is very very real.

Compare it to a car tyre that you are filling with air. As you pump the air into the tyre, the air expands into as much volume as it can. Air of course is the developer; taking two weeks if he only needs one, or five weeks if he only needs two.

Now this is far from ideal – but it doesn’t mean that we should give a developer an unrealistic time to finish something just because we have a poor understanding of this law and think that they will be OK handling a large undertaking in a small time frame. Allow me to explain.

Over inflated tyres

We know that the pressure for the tyre has an optimal value and any extreme deviation outside of this optimal can turn disastrous. Are you silly enough to over inflate a tyre, or to not inflate it enough and then go for a drive? No. You keep your tyre optimally inflated.

If you over inflate the tyre, the air is compressed too much and the pressure becomes too great. In other words, the task requires two weeks but you give it one, and as a result the developer is over worked, stressed, and eventually the tyre pops – as does the robustness of the project.

The other situation is if the gas can’t fill the space you give it – and the tyre deflates. This can happen if a developer gives an over estimation for a project and you oblige without a full understanding of this estimate. It can result in developers lacking motivation due to working at non-optimal levels of pressure. Furthermore, it can cause lack of interest which can further provoke this loss of motivation - most certainly a downward spiral to avoid.

There is a good thing in all of this, and that is the lesson that the analogy teaches us. It teaches us that an optimal level of pressure exists. We should make sure our tyres are inflated at that optimal level and that increasing or decreasing pressure for long periods of time can prove hazardous on the road.