Psychological laws

Hawthorne effect

Productivity would increase if workers were monitored and observed

• Morale would be boosted - they feel that they are being valued - likely to perform better

• Validity that involving employees in decision making process might boost efficiency

Western Electric Hawthorne Plant conducted an experiment involving lighting and learnt about the Hawthorne effect

Hofstader’’s Law

The difficulty of estimating time for a complex project, even if you take into account Hofstader’s Law

• The buffer does not work - how there are always hidden complexities and interruptions

• Coined by Douglas Hofstader in his book Godel, Escher, Bach

The 90-90 rule

The first 90% of the task takes up 90% of your time, and the remaining 10% takes up also 90% of your time.

• attributed to Tom Carghill (Bell Lab)

• software development

• We often overestimate the complexity of the final portion of the project - and procrastinate the hardest task

Conway’s Law

A system’s technical architecture reflects the communication structure of the company

• Inverse Conway maneuver = intentionally design your team structure to trick the organization into producing a system with the technical architecture you want

• Highly influenced by Brooks’ Law (adding too many people would affect the communication structure of the company)

Putt’s Law

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who are proficient but lack management skills, and those who manage but lack proficiency.

• Apple prides itself on breaking this rule

Law of Diminishing return (Illich’s Law)

Beyond a certain point, additional efforts yield diminishing returns and can be counterproductive

• emphasise the need for regular breaks

• Pablo Neruda would agree with this

Law of Least Effort/ Laborit’’s Law

Human beings naturally prioritise easier tasks first before tackling complex ones

• Humans are evolutionarily hardwired to seek dopamine, avoid stress, and conserve energy

• we can tackle this by Eating the Frog

Brook’s Law

Adding more manpower to a late project makes it longer

• New workers require training - it would increase communication overhead

• Some tasks are just not meant for many people

• The number of people working is inversely proportional to the productivity of a company beyond a certain point

Pareto Principle

Vilfredo Pareto realized that 80% of Italy’s wealth is owned by 20% of the people - Coined and popularized by John Joran (“vital few”, “trivial many”)

• how 80% of errors can be eliminated if we fixed 20% of the bugs

20% of effort invested leads to 80% of the overall output

• can be STATISTICALLY MANIPULATED

Laws for software development

• Brook’s Law

• 90-90 rule

Productivity Laws

• Pareto Principle

• Hofstader’s Law

• Illich’s Law

• Laborit’s Law