Vietnam War Anti Pattern

I just came back from a lunch; a coworker brought up an interesting project analogy:

"I was told that this was a simple project that needed to be done, and should not take any longer than a few days. Unfortunately, it was a bigger task than envisioned so more resources were put into it, which stretched everything out, but at this point, we were committed. Now, someone is leaving. It's like the VietnamWar."

So, to begin the classification (actually, I laughed for a bit. I would have laughed harder had this not been so sad...)

• The project begins with "This is Just..."
• The project is viewed as 'important enough' to throw developers at, but not to allow time for a quick high-level analysis.
• By the time the project is viewed as 'too much', it is already too late to scrap it due to the resources added. (You're committed)
• A 'high casualty rate' may be the result of this type of project management.

-- ChadThompson

See also: JustIsaDangerousWord, CouldYouJust

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CategoryAntiPattern