man-month

plural man-months

1. One person's working time for a month, or the equivalent, used as a measure of how much work or labor is required or consumed to perform some task.

   Holonyms: man-year, person-year

   3 more examples

   Meronyms: man-hour, person-hour < man day, person-day

   In project management, there is always another dimbulb who will ask whether the relationship of man-months to calendar months is such that the schedule can be cut in half by doubling the headcount. The standard joke for disabusing this nonsense involves an expedited pregnancy lasting four and a half months instead of nine.

   Experience seems to indicate that developing such a TeX interface for a new output device takes on the order of one man-month.

   1980, Richard S. Palais, “Message from the Chairman”, in TUGboat, volume 1, number 1, page 5

   Synonyms: person-month