A wooden abacus with pale green beads rests on yellow cloth against brick red.

Original artwork, not a still

The Mythical Man-Month

Fred Brooks

How does a project get to be a year late? … One day at a time.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker poses a question about how a project ends up a year behind, then answers it plainly: through small slips, one day at a time. Lateness rarely arrives as one catastrophe; it accumulates from countless ordinary, easily excused delays.

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