The Art of Project Management

Chapter Two. The truth about schedules

Some people tend to be late. It might be only a few minutes on occasion, or just a couple of times a week, but people are often behind on their daily schedules. (However, because denial is another great skill human beings seem to have, I'll understand if you refuse to admit that this claim applies to you.) High school students are late for class, adults are late for meetings at work, and friends arrive 10 minutes late at the bar for drinks. It seems that subconsciously we often believe that being on time isn't about targeting a specific moment but instead is about being within a range of moments, and for some people, that range is wider than for others. An interesting example is the many hostesses who greet us at restaurants. They tell us a table will be ready soon,(1) but often we're made to wait quite a while. It's these experiences of delayed schedules, being put on hold on the telephone, or waiting in the doctor's office, that have caused us to become cynical about schedules—we have so much experience with life not working out according to them.

It isn't a surprise then that so many projects come in late. As human beings, most of us arrive at the task of scheduling projects with a questionable track record for delivering or receiving things on time. We tend to estimate based on weak assumptions, predict outcomes for work based on the ...