Harry is the project manager of a large network installation project. This project requires Harry to
add network cable to each office and cubicle of a 14-story office building. Harry will receive a
bonus for good time and cost performance in this project. What law of economics would prevent
Harry from exponentially adding labor to the project work in an effort to complete the work in a
very small amount of time?

A.
Parkinson’s Law

B.
Law of Diminishing Returns

C.
Law of Economics

D.
Moore’s Law

Explanation:
The law of diminishing returns state that the user cannot exponentially add labor to a project to
reduce the amount of time required to complete the project work. In other words, Harry cannot
keep doubling the workforce on this project to reduce the project duration down to just a few
minutes. The law of diminishing returns state that “the user will get less and less output when he
add additional doses of an input while holding other inputs fixed. In other words, the marginal
product of each unit of input will decline as the amount of that input increases holding all other
inputs constant.” Diminishing returns mean that the extra labor causes output to fall, which means
that the MPL is negative. In other words, the change in output per unit increase in labor is negative
and total output is falling.

Answer option C is incorrect. This is not a valid project management term.
Answer option A is incorrect. Parkinson’s Law states that work will expand to the amount of time
allotted to it.
Answer option D is incorrect. Moore ‘s Law is based on Intel’s Gordon Moore who stated that
processor speeds generally double in power every 18 months.