Great analogy.
I think next time if we try to guess the amount of time we need to complete a project, we will just ask how long would it take to complete up to Stage 80%. And just times it by two.
Why the last 20% of work takes the same amount of time as the first 80%
51–55 of 55 posts
Re: Why the last 20% of work takes the same amount of time as the first 80%
#52Love this analogy because you can extrapolate it even further. I'm the kind of guy that travels the first 80% on the highway, reaches the traffic-bloated city, and actually makes a U-turn to head towards a totally new city, thinking "I'll visit that city later". Or, quite often, halfway towards my destination (let's say 40%), I'll see a board saying "Next exit: even better city", and take that exit. After taking a fe…
I can't if you're being sarcastic, or just exhibit some really strange driving behaviours
Re: Why the last 20% of work takes the same amount of time as the first 80%
#53The obligatory quote:
"The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time." — Tom Cargill, Bell Labs
Re: Why the last 20% of work takes the same amount of time as the first 80%
#54I believe you need to include arriving at your location and finding your directions were wrong/GPS was out of date/were given the wrong address, and need to re-do most of that last 20% drive again.
Re: Why the last 20% of work takes the same amount of time as the first 80%
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
How to measure a project's progress? If time is your metric, then the last 20% should be done in 20% of the total time. (And that's right, when the OP says she was 80% done, she actually was 50% done.) If your metric is something else, what could it be? And perhaps it is not the best metric after all: a loading progress bar that goes quickly to 80% and then slows down (by a factor of 4) until the end may not be the b…
The metric given to the client is that of time, but the metric that ends up being measured is (for lack of a better term) "visible product completion", i.e. percentage of product that 'looks' completed. If I read OP right, the last 20% that is being talked about in the article is mostly a nip here and a tuck. The overall product, from this point onwards, almost always remains largely constant. To bring in yet another…
>I've found that the best way to keep everyone happy is to finish 80% of the product in 50% of the time but show the client 50% of the product and spend the remaining 50% of time, finishing the 20%. It's a win-win, IMHO.
That is a very clever approach. I don't think I've ever heard of that before. I'll have to give it a try.