16.1. A Simple Set of Tasks
She picked up the pad of paper and tore offmy blob. "Tellme, Willie, what do you have to do in the morning to get ready for work? And give me your pencil." She reached out her hand.
I handed her the pencil and looked at her questioningly. "To get ready for work?"
"Trust me, simple things make complicated truths simple."
I played along. "Well, I get out of bed, I shave, I shower, I get dressed, eat breakfast and read the paper, and then drive to work." I paused and then said, "I also help Jenny get the kids up, maybe change a diaper, help make the kids some breakfast, have some mashed bananas spilled onmy tie, changemy tie, notice there are also bananas on my shirt, change my shirt—"
"Enough, Willie! Let's keep it simple." She turned the paper toward me. On it was written:
- Shower
- Shave
- Get out of bed
- Eat breakfast
- Get dressed
- Drive to work
- Read the paper
"Is this what you do in the morning?" she asked me. I allowed as how it was close enough. She continued, "Let's suppose that we are doing an execution plan for what you do in the morning. We have a list of the activities, what do we need after that?"
"We need to know who is going to do each task, which will be me, and we need to estimate how long each one takes."
"Let's do just that," Martha said
When we were done, the list looked like this:
| Who? | How Long? | |
|---|---|---|
| Shower | WC | 8 min |
| Shave | WC | 7 min |
| Get out of bed | WC | 10 min |
| Eat breakfast | WC | 25 min |
| Get dressed | WC | 8 min |
| Drive to work | WC | 15 min |
| Read the paper | WC | 25 min |
"It takes you ten minutes ...
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