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Posted by: moparrob Mar 3 2011, 03:53 PM

I learned a new term today, but if you have a military background you may be familiar with it.

It is "Mission Creep". From Wikipedia, Mission creep is the expansion of a project or mission beyond its original goals. The term often implies a certain disapproval of newly adopted goals by the user of the term. Mission creep is usually considered undesirable due to the dangerous path of each success breeding more ambitious attempts, only stopping when a final, often catastrophic, failure occurs. The term was originally applied exclusively to military operations, but has recently been applied to many different fields.

How appropriate, I thought, when a simple project such as "I'm just going to fill in the blank suddenly becomes a major undertaking rendering your car jackstand bound for an unexpected period of time. The effects of mission creep are seriously exaggerated by 1) underfunding/unrealistic budget projections, 2) procrastination and 3) unsubstantiated optimism.

At least now I know what to call this affliction...

Posted by: smontanaro Mar 3 2011, 04:01 PM

See also http://1967tr4a.blogspot.com/2008/01/shipwrights-disease-stage-1.html.

Posted by: Tom_T Mar 3 2011, 04:05 PM

AKA -

"Budget Creep" disease

"Project Scope Creep" disease

"While I'm in there...." disease

"I can always use one of these for..." disease

etc., etc., etc.

Many faces & many names, in many industries & undertakings!

Posted by: euro911 Mar 3 2011, 04:59 PM

oh, how fuching true

Posted by: balljoint Mar 3 2011, 05:43 PM

DWD

Posted by: moparrob Mar 3 2011, 09:03 PM

QUOTE(balljoint @ Mar 3 2011, 03:43 PM)

Posted by: Dr Evil Mar 4 2011, 03:12 AM

DWD = Dirk Wright's Disease

Another term is "Feature creep"

You never finish the project because you keep coming up with new things to do to it before it is done No idea what that is like

Posted by: Bleyseng Mar 4 2011, 04:14 AM

"Scope creep" is what I learned in school but here long ago it was DWD or Dirk Wright's Disease. Dirk was a real guy who bought a 914 and started a small repair to the petals then proceeded to disassemble the whole damn car "while he was in there" until it was completely apart, then sold it.

Posted by: gothspeed Mar 4 2011, 08:01 AM

Some of these 'creep' events happen when a simple question is asked about .... say "should I hone my cylinders, re-ring it and run it?" which is obviously asked because the person wants to save money .......... AND get approval from the 'critical' members on the forum ............ BUT then ......

The question gets tons of responses like:

"'If you want it done right', you should run Nickies with ARP head studs" then

"while you are in there, you should really replace the through bolts with ARP other wise they will not match the new head studs" or something similar ...... then ....

"'You might as well' rebuild the heads because you cannot have good rings and used heads, or better yet get a set of new LE heads to match the Nickies"

"So you may as well rebuild the whole motor with all forged and titanium parts!!!"

"sure it is a lot of money, but you get what you pay for!" or "you gotta pay to play" or "people without money should not have these cars, because they are sooooo special" or "I would not do it like that!!" ...... or ....... " I would go to Germany and bring Ferdinand Porsche back from the dead and have him redesign this motor .... because it has tons of flaws" .............. etc ................. etc .............

Posted by: Scarlet75 Mar 4 2011, 08:08 AM

QUOTE(gothspeed @ Mar 4 2011, 09:01 AM)

Some of these 'creep' events happen when a simple question is asked about .... say "should I hone my cylinders, re-ring it and run it?" which is obviously asked because the person wants to save money .......... AND get approval from the 'critical' members on the forum ............ BUT then ......

The question gets tons of responses like:

"'If you want it done right', you should run Nickies with ARP head studs" then

"while you are in there, you should really replace the through bolts with ARP other wise they will not match the new head studs" or something similar ...... then ....

"'You might as well' rebuild the heads because you cannot have good rings and used heads, or better yet get a set of new LE heads to match the Nickies"

"So you may as well rebuild the whole motor with all forged and titanium parts!!!"

"sure it is a lot of money, but you get what you pay for!" or "you gotta pay to play" or "people without money should not have these cars, because they are sooooo special" or "I would not do it like that!!" ...... or ....... " I would go to Germany and bring Ferdinand Porsche back from the dead and have him redesign this motor .... because it has tons of flaws" .............. etc ................. etc .............

Posted by: Dr Evil Mar 4 2011, 11:00 AM

QUOTE(Scarlet75 @ Mar 4 2011, 09:08 AM)

QUOTE(gothspeed @ Mar 4 2011, 09:01 AM)

Some of these 'creep' events happen when a simple question is asked about .... say "should I hone my cylinders, re-ring it and run it?" which is obviously asked because the person wants to save money .......... AND get approval from the 'critical' members on the forum ............ BUT then ......

The question gets tons of responses like:

"'If you want it done right', you should run Nickies with ARP head studs" then

"while you are in there, you should really replace the through bolts with ARP other wise they will not match the new head studs" or something similar ...... then ....

"'You might as well' rebuild the heads because you cannot have good rings and used heads, or better yet get a set of new LE heads to match the Nickies"

"So you may as well rebuild the whole motor with all forged and titanium parts!!!"

"sure it is a lot of money, but you get what you pay for!" or "you gotta pay to play" or "people without money should not have these cars, because they are sooooo special" or "I would not do it like that!!" ...... or ....... " I would go to Germany and bring Ferdinand Porsche back from the dead and have him redesign this motor .... because it has tons of flaws" .............. etc ................. etc .............

Posted by: balljoint Mar 4 2011, 11:52 AM

This is why we haven't heard from alpha434. He is rebuilding his entire car in Titanium.

Posted by: ConeDodger Mar 4 2011, 01:34 PM

Spent lots of time in the military... Mission creep often occurs because of 'targets of opportunity' which is also appropriate here. I recently redid my dashboard area and replaced my windshield at the same time because it was a 'target of opportunity.' Having the windshield out made the dash easier and since I was taking the windsheild out, replacing it with new was well...

Posted by: moparrob Mar 4 2011, 01:38 PM

Perhaps I can start a local chapter of Mission Creep Anonymous.

"Hi, My name is Rob and I........."

Posted by: sww914 Mar 4 2011, 01:41 PM

In aircraft they call it weight creep. Next thing you know your whole design is obsolete because the people involved after the design have added so much crap that the engine can't lift the plane anymore.