Murphy’s Law sets the following: “anything that can possibly go wrong, does.”
I do not believe in Murphy’s Law.
The only law I do believe in is the law of gravity.
Gravity affects all. Murphy does not.
When things get bent Murphy takes too much credit (blame) when the more likely result being a symptom of poor planning and failure further upstream and far earlier than Murphy ever came on the scene.
Were you aware that Murphy has company? There are 3 inputs that increase likelihood of Murphy laying the law down on your project.
Murphy’s Law and Order
Though often associated with software development, here are three laws with gravity over Murphy:
- Humphrey’s Law — The User Does Not Know What They Want Until Production
- The assumption is users know what they want before design, build, or production and may not until user’s use the product or service
- Conway’s Law — The Structure of the Organization That Designs is Constrained To Produce Copies of That Organization Structure
- Bloated hierarchy and micromanagement organization dynamics yield:
- projects with poor scope,
- programs that crumble under their own hubris, and
- products that are both unwieldy to adopt and result in excessive cost
- Bloated hierarchy and micromanagement organization dynamics yield:
- Brooks’ Law — Adding Manpower To A Project Delays The Project Even Further
- Projects that launch with bad planning do not get better the closer to delivery date, no matter the resources you add
The three reveal Murphy is more symptom than law and more excuse than lawful credibility. Murphy was bound to show up sooner or later when these other laws were in play.
Gravity works equally and against all, without prejudice. Murphy? Well, stop inviting him and he is less likely to join the party.
postscript: I’ve not forgotten Ziv’s Law, but left it for another source of Murphy’s frustration.