翻译文献Chapter Two. The truth about schedules.docVIP

大连交通大学2016届本科生毕业设计（论文）外文翻译 - PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 11- 外文原文 Chapter Two. The truth about schedules Some people tend to be late. It might be only a few minutes on occasion, or just a couple of times a week, but people are often behind on their daily schedules. (However, because denial is another great skill human beings seem to have, Ill understand if you refuse to admit that this claim applies to you.) High school students are late for class, adults are late for meetings at work, and friends arrive 10 minutes late at the bar for drinks. It seems that subconsciously we often believe that being on time isnt about targeting a specific moment but instead is about being within a range of moments, and for some people, that range is wider than for others. An interesting example is the many hostesses who greet us at restaurants. They tell us a table will be ready soon, but often were made to wait quite a while. Its these experiences of delayed schedules, being put on hold on the telephone, or waiting in the doctors office, that have caused us to become cynical about schedules we have so much experience with life not working out according to them. It isnt a surprise then that so many projects come in late. As human beings, most of us arrive at the task of scheduling projects with a questionable track record for delivering or receiving things on time. We tend to estimate based on weak assumptions, predict outcomes for work based on the best possible set of circumstances, and given our prior experiences simultaneously avoid placing too much confidence in any schedule we see or create. Why we do this, how it impacts project schedules, and what can be done to avoid these problems is the subject of this chapter. But before we can figure out how to make better schedules, we first have to understand what problems schedules solve. If they are so unreliable, why bother with them at all? Schedules serve several different purposes only some of which are focused on measuring the use