|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
MURPHY'S LAWS
and Others Reasons Things Go WrongPage 9
ACCOUNTSMANSHIPIf you find errors on these pages... it's to be expected
Frothingham's Fallacy:
Time is money.
Crane's Law:
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
Parkinson's First Law:
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion; the thing to be done swells in perceived importance and complexity in a direct ratio with the time to be spent in its completion.
Parkinson's Second Law:
Expenditures rise to meet income.
Parkinson's Law of Delay:
Delay is the deadliest form of denial.
Wilker's Law:
Government expands to absorb revenue and then some.
Tuccille's First Law of Reality:
Industry always moves in to fill an economic vacuum.
Westheimer's Rule:
To estimate the time it takes to do a task:
Estimate the time you think it should take, multiply by 2, and change the unit of measure to the next highest unit. Thus we allocate 2 days for a one-hour task.
Gray's Law of Programming:
n+1’ trivial tasks are expected to be accomplished in the same time as ‘n’ tasks.
Logg's Rebuttal to Gray's Law:
n+l’ trivial tasks take twice as long as ‘n’ trivial tasks.
Gresham's Law:
Trivial matters are handled promptly; important matters are never solved.
Ninty-Ninty Rule of Project Schedules:
The first ninety percent of the task takes ninety percent of the time, and the last ten percent takes the other ninety percent.
Weinberg's First Law:
Progress is made on alternate Fridays.
The Ordering Principle:
Those supplies necessary for yesterday's experiment must be ordered no later than tomorrow noon.
Extended Epstein-Heisenberg Principle:
In an R & D orbit, only 2 of the existing 3 parameters can be defined simultaneously. The parameters are: task, time, and resources ($).
1. If one knows what the task is, and there is a time limit allowed for the completion of the task, then one cannot guess how much it will cost.
2. If the time and resources are clearly defined, then it is impossible to know what part of the R & D task will be performed.
3. If you are given a clearly defined R & D goal and a definite amount of money which has been calculated to be necessary for the completion of the task, you cannot predict if and when the goal will be reached.
If one is lucky enough and can accurately define all 3 parameters, then what one deals with is not in the realm of R & D.
Cheops's Law:
Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
Pareto's Law (THE 20/80 LAW):
20% of the customers account for 80% of the turnover.
20% of the components account for 80% of the cost, etc.
Brown's Law of Business Success:
Our customer's paperwork is profit. Our own paperwork is loss.
O'Brien's Principle (The $357.73 Theory):
Auditors always reject any expense account with a bottom line divisible by 5 or 10.
Issawi's Observation on
The Consumption of Paper:Each system has its own way of consuming vast amounts of paper:
In socialist societies by filling large forms in quadruplicate,
In capitalist societies by putting up huge posters and wrapping every article in four layers of cardboard.
John's Collateral Corollary:
In order to get a loan you must first prove you don't need it.
Brien's First Law:
At some time in the life cycle of virtually every organization, its ability to succeed in spite of itself runs out.
Law of Institutions:
The opulence of the front office decor varies inversely with the fundamental solvency of the firm.
Paulg's Law:
In America, it's not how much an item costs, it's how much you save.
Juhani's Law:
The compromise will always be more expensive than either of the suggestions it is compromising.
As the laws are presented on my weekly e-mail list I will add them here. Come back each week or see them first by sending an e-mail to murphy-subscribe@topica.com
If you have other Murphy type "Laws"to add please E mail me
