Fungible Project Manager

Fungible - being of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in the satisfaction of an obligation.

Hence, you should put in place a FungibleProjectManager approach when you are working in conflict mode with a hard customer. After a big crisis and escalation, after useless task forces, you can dispose of your project manager as a sign of your will to go on with the project... and get a clone from your warehouse. Your customer will be happy and nothing will change because your project manager is a FungibleProjectManager.

Discussion

What you should do is fix the relationship with the customer. Dilbert is a cartoon, not a documentary. -- MarcThibault

I wish you were right. Well, the thing is some service company use it as a way to satisfy the customer while changing nothing to their method. Seen from the job that is to be done, it is definitely a BadThing, so a ManagementAntiPattern, but I saw companies using it as a ManagementPattern. -- OlivierRey

Well, we can wander if this is really an AntiPattern. Some companies are using this trick to fool customers, especially in the IT world and it seems quite successful.

See PlugCompatibleInterchangeableEngineers, FungibleTeams

Seems like a role specific version of SacrificialLamb?

CategoryAntiPattern, CategoryManagementAntiPattern