If you have never read the book, Cheaper By The Dozen, I would recommend it to you all.   This book was written by the daughter of one of the original management-practices gurus:   the people who counted the number of movements made by a person’s hands, to try to reduce wasted motion.   The kind of person who weighed a tube of toothpaste.   So, absurdity masquerading as science is not altogther new.

It is strange to have been on both sides of that manager’s desk, and I certainly know which side of it I prefer.   In the manager-seat, you are responsible for the outcome but you feel that you have no real control over it.   But then, when you turn away from The Dark Side   ;-) ... you find that you just can’t stomach the various “methodologies” any more.   You realize that they consist (IMHO... just IMHO...) of excuses for an utter lack of process, masquerading as process!

Yes, we can determine how long a project is going to take to complete.   We can bring the ship into the dock without the slightest bumping into it.   We can finish a plumbing job and turn the water on and not need to have a bucket and a wad of towels in our hands, “just in case.”