Draft:Quantum Theory of Project Management
Project management theory
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Quantum Theory of Project Management
The Quantum Theory of Project Management is a conceptual framework asserting that one can only know either the position or the velocity of a project at any given moment. Because work must stop in order to provide a status update (its position), a status update inherently halts progress (its velocity).
The theory draws an analogy to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics. The principle asserts that the more accurately one property of a particle is measured, the less accurately a related property can be known, such as position and velocity (momentum).
According to the Quantum Theory of Project Management, whenever a person or system is queried for an update, that entity must cease work and divert attention and resources toward communicating what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. Additionally, the higher the quality of the status update, the greater the detrimental impact.
Origin
The Quantum Theory of Project Management was developed and popularized by Benjamin Roorda beginning in 2013. At the time, Roorda was working as a Lead Engineer in the aerospace industry, where he was required to provide high-quality daily status updates to management. Frustrated by the time and effort these reports demanded, he remarked one day, "If it weren't for all this reporting we'd be done by now." That offhand comment illuminated what would become the central insight of his theory: the inverse relationship between reporting and progress.
Impacts
Excessive frequency and reporting requirements can essentially freeze a project. The theory attempts to illuminate the consequences of excessive status update requests by upper management.
The frequency and quality of status reporting must be appropriate to each project. The theory does not seek to vilify status investigations, updates, and reporting, only to caution against excessive project measurement.
The impacts are cumulative. Regardless of whether reporting entities are queried individually or collectively, each must cease work to report out.
The theory illuminates an irony in distressed project management. When a project falls behind schedule, a common first response is to increase the frequency and quality of status reporting. This intervention carries the unintended consequence of slowing the project down further.
Criticisms
Computer systems do not exhibit the same restrictions due to multithreading. A status reporting thread can be launched in parallel to the working thread. However, this does not fully escape the theory as the reporting thread is taking resources that otherwise could be applied to the working thread, and thus affects the overall work speed.
Independent reporting systems that only observe from a distance and do not interact with the work would be immune to the theory’s impacts. This is analogous to an observer in a factory on a balcony watching the workers below. As long as the observer does not interact in any way with the workers there can be no impact.
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