Jim is the project manager for his project. He and his project team are creating their duration
estimates for the work packages in the WBS. For each activity, Jim is adding a few hours to the
duration estimate in case something goes wrong during the completion of the work activity. Sarah,
the project sponsor, does not approve of this and warns Jim of Parkinson’s Law. What is
Parkinson’s Law?

A.
People will behave based on what their behavior brings them.

B.
As employees do repetitive tasks, duration should decrease.

C.
Work expands to fill the amount of time allotted to it.

D.
An exponential increase labor does not correlate to an exponential decrease in duration.

Explanation:
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the amount of time allotted to complete the work.
If Jim allows 25 hours for a project team member to complete a 20-hour task, it will likely take the
team member 25 hours to do the work.
Answer option A is incorrect. This is a description of the Expectancy Theory.
Answer option B is incorrect. This is a description of the learning curve.
Answer option D is incorrect. This is a description of a portion of the Law of Diminishing Returns.