Quantum Peanut Butter Sandwiches

The reason I have been so bad about posting on my blog is that work has been heavy. Not only has the work been piling up, but I have been the primary interviewer for the project manager candidates. On the programmer side of things, we are very discriminating and we test every programmer before they even get to the second round. In project management, we haven't. So I put together a test. "Build me the project plan for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." They have to suck the details out of me. Of course, like any normal client, I am not going to tell you everything up front. You have to poke me a little to get me to open up.

Some of them "get it." They ask, "Do you care about brand of Peanut Butter? Type of Jelly? Thick or thin bread? Toasted or not? On a plate? Do you want one? Do you want anything to drink? Do you want it delivered?" and so forth. Others, well, they don't pry.

After they get all of the information, I have them build a project plan that reflects the tasks.

One candidate put all of the tasks as milestones (which means that duration=0 days) and they all occured at the same moment in time. Thus the quantum PB&J. 12:39 pm: Nothing. 12:39 BLING! Sandwich.

When asked to read the project plan and tell me how long it will take to create the sandwich, she looked at me, looked at the plan, and said, "About 15 minutes."