Water fill syndrome

Water fill syndrome

Avoid water fill 
Before something to be done, 

something else needs to be done.. 

to qualify to “this is how it should be done”
Work expands to end later, 

as this recursive work scope extension prevents delivery of 

a “small, manageable and short coursed ‘focused tasks’” 

Avoid water fill at all costs.

Seek, simplest thing that is guaranteed to work, next hour.
Impact on delivery

• This delays deliveries 
• Accumulates associated deliveries 
• Main do-able item looses focus in the process 
• Timely sequence of delivery packets disturbed and takes form of big chunk deliveries with longer delivery intervals

Preventive course
Working on every subsequent associated item shall be discouraged and 

entered into TODOs list so they do not loose sight

Avoid gold plating. 

Gold plating is glorification and hence expansion of a scope

Every unit of expansion adds to complexity

"Complexity" relates to "efforts to do" in exponential relation