Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Pareto Principle

Slide 2

I read with interest the Pareto principle and should have known this principle much earlier to laugh off some of my bitter personal experiences. The Pareto principle which more popularly known as the 80:20 rule originated from Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who studied the distribution of wealth in a variety of countries around 1900. He discovered a common phenomenon: about 80% of the wealth in most countries was controlled by a consistent minority -- about 20% of the people.


According to Pareto principle a minority of input produces the majority of results.


20% of something always are responsible for 80 percent of the results.

20% of the code has 80% of the defects.

20% of the modules consume 80% of the resources.

20% of the errors consume 80% of repair costs.

20% of the enhancements consume 80% of adaptive maintenance costs.

20% of the modules consume 80% of the execution time.

20% of the tools experience 80% of the tool usage.


My personal experience (using or misusing the Pareto principle, never mind--just feel nice 'Thinking Allowed').


20% extra is enough for some people; 80% extra for others to get the same reward.

20% work; 80% suddenly appear just before the boss arrives.

20% help to organise; another 80% just celebrate its success.

20% of the people results in 80% of the improvements.

20% say 'no problem'; 80% say it can't be done.

20% raise 80% of the money in a fund-raising.

20% of the people make 80% of the mistakes.

20% look for solution; 80% look for excuses.

20% of the people cause 80% of the delays.

20% dedicated; 80% could not be bothered.

20% understand 80% misunderstand.

20% prepared; 80% announced.

20% understand; 80% pretend.

20% openly; 80% in the heart.

20% explain; 80% complain.

20% reality; 80% publicity.

20% hope; 80% reality.

20% reveal; 80% keep.


My 20% is up. Hence, I should not continue any further.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hello friend,

How true! The Pareto principle does feature so prominently in our lives, as in your examples.
let me also add to yours my personal experiences:
20% think, 80% reap their thoughts
20% share, 80% take
20% positive, 80% negative
20% love, 80% fake feelings of love
20% cooperate, 80% tag along
20% committed, 80% non-committal
20% trust, 80% fear
20% happy, 80% unhappy
20% read, 80% secondary readers
20% listen, 80% hear what they want to hear
20% speak their minds, 80% speak what they think others want to hear
20% satisfied, 80% dissatsfied but keep it in their hearts
20% do work themselves, 80% let others do their work.
20% care, 80% are not bothered
20% order the other 80% to do their work and then call it theirs.
The list goes on...
my 20% time is also up....

Cheers