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Multi-Tasking:

Why projects take so long and still go late

In most project environments multi-tasking is a way of life. This seemingly harmless activity, often 

celebrated as a desirable skill, is one of the biggest culprits in late projects, long project durations, and 

low project output. At the same time it is one of the least understood factors in managing projects.

For companies where projects are of strategic importance, the stakes are very high. Whether it is 

delivering their product or service, bringing new products to market, or expanding/upgrading their operations 

with new facilities, systems, or capabilities, the financial impact of being able to reduce project durations and 

costs, increase the volume of completed projects, or simply deliver more projects on-time is enormous. 

So understanding how this often overlooked practice of multi-tasking is of critical importance to most companies.

Multi-tasking and project performance

Multi-tasking is the act of stopping a task before it is completed and shifting to something else; in software development the term "thrashing" is often used to describe this practice. When a task is stopped and started there is an immediate loss of efficiency. Each time a person has to re-start a task, time is required to become re-familiarized with the work and get re-set in where he was in the process. It is very much like the physical set-ups done on machines in production. Each time you tear down a machine to do another task, you have to set it up again to complete the order.

 

While the loss in efficiency is not insignificant, especially in "knowledge work," it is not the most important reason multi-tasking is so damaging. What happens when a task is interrupted mid-stream is that both the completion of the task and project are delayed. Most people in project management readily agree that it is not important when a task finishes, instead it is essential when the project finishes. 

The diagram below shows three tasks a particular resource must do, related to three different projects, and when they are expected to finish: Task A after 10 days, B after 20, and C after 30.

 

But if the resource has to stop and start the task just once in the process, the actual completion times of the tasksquickly extends, as shown below. Task A now finishes only after 20 days instead of 10, task B at 25 days rather than at 20 days, and task C may still finish on-time at 30 days. If there is loss in efficiency as a result of this multi-tasking, the delays increase.

The delays on tasks A and B immediately translates into delays on the downstream tasks in those projects that now can only start at Day 20 and 25 respectively. The impact on project A is illustrated below. Even in a very small project like this one with just four tasks, and with only one instance of multi-tasking, the project is delivered almost 30% late. It’s not hard to see how the more likely scenario of having several or many instances of multi-tasking during a project can cause the delays to accumulate considerably and lengthen project durations considerably.

 

 

The delays on tasks A and B immediately translates into delays on the downstream tasks in those projects that now can only start at Day 20 and 25 respectively. The impact on project A is illustrated below. Even in a very small project like this one with just four tasks, and with only one instance of multi-tasking, the project is delivered almost 30% late. It’s not hard to see how the more likely scenario of having several or many instances of multi-tasking during a project can cause the delays to accumulate considerably and lengthen project durations considerably.

 

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