Parkinson's law of triviality, also known as bikeshedding or the bicycle-shed example, is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that organizations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. Parkinson demonstrated this by contrasting the triviality of the cost of building a bike shed to an atomic reactor. The law has been applied to software development and other activities.
Read more about Parkinson's Law Of Triviality: Argument, When Governance Meetings Devolve Into Two-cents' Worth, Related Principles and Formulations
Famous quotes containing the words parkinson, law and/or triviality:
“The Law of Triviality ... briefly stated, it means that the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.”
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993)
“There is ... but one response possible from us: Force, Force to the uttermost, Force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant Force which shall make Right the law of the world and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“nor till the poets among us can be “literalists of the imagination”Mabove insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, “imaginary gardens with real toads in them,” shall we have
it.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)