Parkinson's Law of Triviality (also known as the bicycle shed example, and by the expression colour of the bikeshed) is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that organisations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.
Argument
The concept is presented in C. Northcote Parkinson's spoof of management, Parkinson's Law (1957).[1] Parkinson dramatises his Law of Triviality with a committee's deliberations on a nuclear power plant, compared to deliberation on a bicycle shed. While discussing the bikeshed, debate emerges over whether the best choice of roofing is aluminium, asbestos or galvanised iron, then over whether the shed is a good idea or not. The committee then moves on to coffee purchasing, a discussion that results in the biggest waste of time and the most acrimony.
A nuclear reactor is so vastly expensive and complicated that people cannot understand it, so they assume that those working on it understand it. Even those with strong opinions might withhold them for fear of being shown to be insufficiently informed. On the other hand, everyone understands a bicycle shed (or thinks they do), so building one can result in endless discussions: everyone involved wants to add his touch and show that he is there.
Restating
The concept was restated (and transformed: Parkinson did not mention selecting a paint colour) by a widely-quoted and often-reprinted 1999 email post by Poul-Henning Kamp to the FreeBSD development mailing list titled "A bike shed (any colour will do) on greener grass... "[2][3] Despite the fact that colour was not featured as an argument in Parkinson's original example, Parkinson's basic concept was presented, and used to illustrate software development problems. After Kamp's restatement, the Law of Triviality has increasingly been referred to as the "bikeshed concept" or "colour of the bikeshed" in publications and discourse.
Notes
References
- Karl Fogel, Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project, O'Reilly, 2005, ISBN 0596007590, "Bikeshed Effect" pp. 135, 261-268 (also online)
- "Poul-Henning Kamp's famous "bikeshed" post (an excerpt from which appears in Chapter 6) is an eloquent disquisition on what tends to go wrong in group discussions." (p. 261)
- Grace Budrys, Planning for the nation's health: a study of twentieth-century developments in the United States, Greenwood Press, 1986, ISBN 031325348X, p. 81 (see extract at Google Books)
- "The difference, according to Parkinson, was that everyone had some experiences with projects of the bicycle-shed variety; in contrast to their experience with nuclear physics buildings." (p. 81)
- Bob Burton et al., Nuclear Power, Pollution and Politics, Routledge, 1990, ISBN 041503065X, p. ix (see extract at Google Books)
- "A few decades ago, Professor Northcote Parkinson published a series of essays on the science of public and business administration.... [His] Law of Triviality [uses an example that] describes the perfunctory discussion on an item concerning an expensive...nuclear reactor and compares this with the fierce debate over the proposed new bicycle shed.... [No] self-respecting committee member would confess to not understanding the construction and economics of a bicycle shed! Few better illustrations of the workings of the various laws enunciated by Parkinson could be provided than the development of nuclear power...." (p. ix)
- Darren Chamberlain et al., Perl Template Toolkit, O'Reilly, 2004, ISBN 0596004761, p. 412 (see extract at Google Books)
- Donelson R. Forsyth, Group Dynamics, Brooks/Cole, 1990, ISBN 0534080103, p. 289 (see extract at Google Books)
- Henry Bosch, The Director at Risk: Accountability in the Boardroom, Allen & Unwin, 1995, ISBN 0729903257, p. 92 (see extract at Google Books)
- Brian Clegg, Crash Course in Personal Development, Kogan Page, 2002, ISBN 0749438320, p. 3 (see extract at Google Books)
- Richard M. Hodgetts, Management: Theory, Process, and Practice, Saunders, 1979, ISBN 0721647146, p. 115 (see extract at Google Books)
- Journal, v. 37-38 1975-1980, Chartered Institute of Transport, p. 187 (see extract at Google Books)
- Russell D. Archibald, Managing High-Technology Programs and Projects, John Wiley and Sons, 2003, ISBN 0471265578, p. 37 (see extract at Google Books)
- Kishor Bhagwati, Managing Safety: A Guide for Executives, Wiley-VCH, 2007, ISBN 3527609598, p. 54 (see extract at Google Books)
- Jan Pen, Harmony and Conflict in Modern Society, McGraw-Hill, 1966 p. 195 (see extract at Google Books)
- Derek Salman Pugh et al., Great Writers on Organizations, Dartmouth, 1993, ISBN 1855213834, p. 116 (see extract at Google Books)
- The Federal Accountant v. 13 (9/63-6/64), Association of Government Accountants, Federal Government Accountants Association, Cornell University Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, p. 16 (see extract at Google Books)
- Al Kelly, How to Make Your Life Easier at Work, McGraw-Hill, 1988, ISBN 0070340153, p. 127 (see extract at Google Books)
- Henry Mintzberg, Power in and Around Organizations: Dynamic Techniques of Winning, Prentice-Hall, 1983, ISBN 0136868576, p. 75 (see extract at Google Books)
- The Building Services Engineer v.40 1972-1973, Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers (Great Britain), Chartered Institution of Building Services (see extract at Google Books)
- Charles Hampden-Turner, Gentlemen and Tradesmen: The Values of Economic Catastrophe, Routledge, 1983, ISBN 0710095791, p. 151 (see extract at Google Books)
See also
External links
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