Your project is always at risk of being delayed by the longest task in the project.

Your project is always at risk of being delayed by the longest task in the project.

—Mark Horstman, Career Tools Podcast

I think I replayed this 3 times in the driveway while I took out the trash. It's been a minute since I've thought about project management this way.

We often think, "UAT will take a month", so we block a month on the calendar and move on. What happens if we realize something didn't get done at the end of the month? The project could be 4 weeks behind. Smaller 2-3 day tasks put a cap on the risk.

• Task Size: 1 month → Potential Delay: 4 weeks
• Task Size: 3 days → Potential Delay: 3 days