The phenomenon whereby any insufficiently moderated social media platform, over time, deteriorates to resemble UseNet. In other words, the traffic becomes dominated by spammers, trolls, trollbots, assholes and other examples of the flotsam and jetsam of… more »

An emerging dialect of English, comprising 33% IT buzzwords and acronyms, 33% Indian dialect or Indian english phrases (i.e. "do the needful") and 33% English. Now the predominant lingua franca in Global IT support based in India. more »

The practice, within a project team where team members, instead of recording the actual hours expended to complete a task, instead merely enter a standard number of hours each day (usually 8). This results in gross under-recording of actual task duration… more »

A condition sometimes found among employees suffering from a surfeit of idealism. This condition is characterised by a belief that corporations should be governed by the application of principles such as fairness, integrity, high ethical and moral standa… more »

A quaint belief or aspiration, rooted in commonsense and an understanding of the human condition, that senior leaders in government and corporations will accumulate credibility and enhance the willingness of their followers if they are plausible, honest… more »

A dysfunctional behavior usually engaged in by members or leaders of project teams who are unhappy or hostile to a new or changed project, approach or process. This may take many forms, from passive-aggressive public behavior in meetings, to public enthu… more »

A standard process in dysfunctional corporations, whereby clear reports of status from project managers are initially created (or later converted into) ambiguous, impenetrable nonsense for presentation upwards to internal leadership and/or clients. Durin… more »

The process adopted by dysfunctional or ethically-marginal senior leadership when they have already created what they believe is the correct answer to a pressing issue (which may or may not be the correct answer). People presented as "experienced", "auth… more »

The concept of dealing with out-of-favour employees by transferring them to a function or location which is known as a punishment zone. Exiled employees often determine, quite correctly, that Exile is an arbitrary and capricious punishment and an abuse… more »

A leader whose desire to "keep it simple" and "make it clear" leads to his/her evaluation processes being almost exclusively focussed on creating two alternatives at differeing ends of the spectrum. Black or white, chalk or cheese etc. Such leaders dismi… more »

The variant of Testing performed on a project where the software has missing or incomplete documented requirements or specification. Since there is no objective way of demonstrating compliance with requirements, Testing completion occurs when the client… more »

A style of leadership where the leader is instantly influenced (postively or negatively) by interactions with his/her leaders or peers. When their interactions go badly for them, these individuals proceed to sulk in their offices or roam the corporate lo… more »

That part of a software solution which is the most important for customer satisfaction; however, instead of utilizing skilled user experience designers, many delivery groups assign the design of the user interface to group members (usually developers) wh… more »

A useful principle which states that the actual competency of a person to perform a given task or set of tasks is in inverse proportion to their claimed competence. The principle is often true because of human failings, including one or more or combinati… more »

A fine-sounding phrase, uttered by the leaders of the Vendor Management function of a corporation during corporate broadcasts and public meetings. What viewers cannot see while they are uttering the phrase is the location of their foot, on the throat of… more »

A magical "thing" that is regarded by everybody in corporations as highly desirable, since it is believed that high morale will cause employees to sing a merry tune and smile while being massively productive and positive. Corporate leaders believe they… more »

A phrase, sentence or slogan, normally used by Sales and Marketing personnel, but now frequently used by leaders (and failed leaders) at all levels of many corporations. Assertions are usually devoid of any supporting facts, but are supposed to cause the… more »

1. The role of identifying prospective customers, engaging them in dialogue to determine their real and tangible needs, matching those needs with a corporation's offerings, and moving the prospective customer to a point where they agree to purchase signi… more »

A little-known and little-publicised group of board members of a corporation (largely comprising CEOs and CFOs of other corporations) that meets to determine the compensation rules and employment contracts for senior executives of the corporation, includ… more »

An over-used and much-abused word in corporations, as in "we are at war with the competition". The individuals deploying the word have usually never fought in a real war, and overlook the fact that it is not normal practice in business competition to bom… more »

1. a process of understanding a corporation's products and offerings by collaborating with creation and delivery groups, positioning those offerings in the mind of prospective consumers and helping to create and enhance marketplace demand for those offer… more »

Euphemism for the latest pronouncement from the CEO or CFO office. This is often delivered in a way that renders upward comment and feedback next to impossible. more »

1. A grant of a massive number of items of stock or shares in the corporation given to senior leaders at frequent intervals. Such grants are sometimes mysteriously and retro-actively repriced downwards by the Stock Grant Fairy to account for falls in the… more »

A unique instance of Nobody who visits the executive suite while nobody is looking and retro-actively reprices stock option grants previously awarded to senior leaders, so that those leaders' options never go under water. Interestingly, the Stock Grant F… more »

A failing of the human condition that results in an employee believing that the processes of corporate governance should be better in the future than they are in the present, and that the required improvements can be obtained by the application of logic… more »