MIND THE GAP!

Ever been on one of those projects where someone (usually the leadership) thinks it's going way better than it actually is? If you've spent a reasonable amount of time in software, you probably have. Here, then, is my sole addition to the software engineering lexicon. Feel free to use this whenever appropriate.

The distance between the actual doneness of a project and the perception of doneness is hereby defined as the Reality Gap.

So, assuming you had some magical way to determine precisely how far along on a project (or task, or whatever) you are, the distance between there and where you think you are is the Reality Gap. If the Reality Gap is large, then, well, your team may be tremendously optimistic or, sadly, in denial. Welcome to deathmarch.

I mention this for no reason whatsoever. None.