In the beginning was The Project, and it was without form, substance or sponsor. From the East came one who was chosen out of many. And he was called The Project Manager. He looked at The Project and saw that it was good. From the West, out of the wilderness, came unto The Project Manager one who was to be known as The Sponsor, and he looked at The Project and saw that it was good.

And The Sponsor spake thus unto The Project Manager "I will give thee many shekels to complete this Project, but I will give thee half the time that thou hast requested." Now The Project Manager was doubtful, but would not say so.

Thus it came to pass that the first milestone of The Project was fulfilled, although there was, as yet, no Specification.

The Project Manager did then begat a Project Leader; The Project leader begat Team Leaders; The Team Leaders begat Team Members and The Team Members begat The Beasts that crawled for pittances.

Then The Project Manager went unto The Project Leader with great rejoicing and trips to the local inn, shewing him The Project and saying "Lo, we have been sponsored." The Project Leader saw that it was good, but he was sore afraid and said unto The Project Manager "We have only half the time and, as yet, we have no Specification." Then The Project Leader went unto his Host and shewed them The Project. They saw that it was good, but The Timescales were withheld from them.

The Project Manager did then spake unto to The Project Leaders, Team Members and other beasts saying "let The Project be divided unto its component parts; let there be a Hardware Portion, a Software Portion, an Operating System and a User Interface (which shalt be friendly)." Thus the division of The Project did come to pass, and when all saw that it was good, it was writ upon ten Tablets of Stone and did take upon the name "A Plan"

Thus it came to pass that the second milestone of The Project was fulfilled, although there was, as yet, no Specification.

Now the teams for each Portion of The Project went about their allotted tasks with enthusiasm and vigour. The Hardware Team sent out to many dealers and suppliers for their necessities and machines of great ingenuity, but it came to pass that there was a shortage of small black items with metal legs, (called "chips"). The Software Team poured over their manuals and spent many hours manipulating their keyboards, but it came to pass that there was a shortage of Structures. The Operating System Team weighed the advantages of off-the-shelf Operating Systems against in-house developments until a choice was made, but it came to pass that there was a shortage of Shells. Meanwhile the User Interface Team produced many papers and outlines, commentaries and suggestions, formats and layouts, inputs and outputs, syntaxes and semantics, graphs and drawings, ergonomics and human factors, pictures and texts, arrangements and refinements, manuals and user guides (all of which were friendly), and while there was no shortage of choices it came to pass that there was a shortage of Decision.

Thus it came to pass that the third milestone of the Project was not fulfilled, although there was, as yet, no Specification.

Now The Project Manager did rent his clothes, tear his hair and beat his breast whilst berating his Project Leader for not fulfilling a milestone. And the two of them went into a huddle and concocted a cunning plan which they did name unto themselves an "Exception Plan".

Then did The Host redouble their efforts to bring The Project back onto its new course, for they saw that it was good, even though they now knew The Timescales. Many hours were spent, many corners were cut, and much documentation was left unwritten, but still there was a lack of small black items with metal legs (called "chips"), no more Structures, insufficient Shells and no Decision on the User Interface (although it was friendly).

Thus it came to pass that neither the third or fourth milestone was completed, and there was, as yet, no Specification.

Then The Sponsor did bring to bear the full force of his anger upon The Project Manager, using many long and technical terms (and verily a few short and non-technical words also) until The Project Manager did fall upon his knees and beg unto The Sponsor thus "One last chance - we will build for thee a Demonstrator model with cut-down facilities, simplified and less powerful, that ye may see that all is possible." And the Sponsor mulled the idea over until it grew in his mind and he did give his blessing unto The Project Manager.

Now The Host had worked their fingers unto their bones and were sore afraid that The Project Manager and The Project Leader had placed them in a quicksand of mire from which there would be no escape. Thus it came to pass that when The Project Manager told them about The Demonstrator, there was mutterings, grumbles and the shuffling of feet. But none would speak up and tell The Project Manager of the folly of a Demonstrator as it was coming close unto the Day of Reckoning (known as "The Appraisement"), upon which the shekels of the spoils were divided amongst the individuals.

In spite of the discontentment that abounded, The Demonstrator was completed as a task. It had many less black items with metal legs (called "chips") than were needed, there were too few Structures to support the tasks of the software, an insufficiency of Shells for the processes to complete, no properly defined User Interface (friendly or otherwise). But built unto The Foundations of the Demonstrator were many anomalies - which were named "Bugs" by The Host, and "Features" by The Project Manager and The Project Leader.

Thus it came to pass that the fifth milestone was completed, despite The Knowledge that the third and the fourth were not, and there was, as yet, no Specification.

Now The Sponsor did look at The Demonstrator through a device (known as "Rose Tinted Spectacles"), which made him think that it was Good. And the Sponsor did come unto The Project Manager and accept The Demonstrator INSTEAD of the final Project.

Now The Project Manager was sore afraid, but could not say so, because there was, as yet, still no Specification.