Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior

77. Piling On

Stakeholders profess support for a project but then keep adding bloat until the project founders.

“Piling on” in American football is a penalty called when defensive players leap onto an already downed ballcarrier. The weight of massive linemen landing on the ballcarrier’s back is intended to send him a message, just in case he might ever again have the temerity to carry the ball into their territory. It is justly called a foul.

Piling on in project work usually takes the form of adding marginal features to a product whose cost/benefit ratio hangs in the balance. While seeming to be constructive, the covert goal of such behavior ...