Padding Projects to Inflate Client Costs Sheila, my project manager, was the brightest star on the company's skyline. Newly acquired stock options tucked under her belt, she smiled at me appreciatively in acknowledgement of the fresh piece of code that I'd written. She was oblivious to the discomfort I was beginning to feel more strongly with every passing day. Why would she notice it, anyway? She had plenty to occupy her mind, including the fact that now that the project had been signed off, the sole responsibility for its successful execution was hers. I, however, could not get over my knowledge that the code I was writing was not essential or required for the application to run. The service we were providing to the customer for database system migration would have functioned effectively even without the business logic that our team was feverishly coding. My discomfort started when she and the technical architect sidestepped my questions and doubts about the utility of my software module. My misgivings were further fortified when, to clear my own doubts, I dug out books and literature and was finally convinced about the real story. I was spending week after week writing software for a module that did not need to be included in the detailed design of the application in the first place. Instead, it was woven in cleverly during the design phase and now carried over to the development phase of the project as an integral part of the application. The client would end up paying through the nose for this redundant work. I believed that I could not resolve this dilemma because: The project had already been signed off. My bringing up the issue at this stage would not change anything. There was no process in place for me to correct this immediately. I feared it would affect my career adversely. What to do? Who to talk to? Continuing the work is simply getting harder and harder to live with each day. Questions for your consideration: What are the main arguments our programmer is trying to counter? That is, what are the reasons and rationalizations he/she needs to address? What's at stake for the key parties, including those with whom you disagree? What levers/arguments can our programmer use to influence those with whom he/she disagrees? What is your most powerful and persuasive response to the reasons and rationalizations you need to address? Using the PMI decision framework, map out some solutions or possible ways that our programmer could deal with this dilemma.