Projects - What We Say and What We Mean

We got so sick of working on this that we decided to do something else.
Major Technological Breakthrough--Back to the drawing board.
Developed after years of intensive research--It was discovered by accident.
Customer satisfaction is believed assured--We are so far behind schedule that the customer will be happy to get anything at all from us.
The design will be finalized in the next reporting period--We haven't started this job yet, but we've got to say something.
Test results were extremely gratifying--It works, and are we surprised.
Extensive effort is being applied on a fresh approach to the problem--We just hired three new guys; we'll let them kick it around for a while.
Preliminary operational tests are inconclusive--The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.
The entire concept will have to be abandoned--The only guy who understood the thing quit.
Modifications are under way to correct certain minor difficulties--We threw the whole thing out and are starting from scratch.
Originally published July 24, 2003.