We don't put our best minds on maintenance

Say you are running a company and you have three projects requiring equally technical skill-sets. Project #1 is really high profile. If it goes well, it will be amazing for everyone. If it doesn't, it will really make you look bad, but the company will still be okay. Project #2 is routine but still in the public eye. If it goes well, there won't be a lot of accolades but if it goes poorly, it will really damage the company's credibility. Project #3 is mundane to the extreme. If all goes well, nobody will even be aware it was done but if it should go wrong, it will destroy the company along with all pensions, equity and shareholder value.

Project #1: High upside, some downside.

Project #2: Limited upside, limited downside.

Project #3: No upside, potentially fatal downside.

Which project do you assign to your best project manager? Which of the three do you give to your worst?

Let me ask another way: Which project does your best project manager want to work on? What project does your least influential project manager get stuck with?

It's pretty obvious that Project #1 is going to attract high performers and Project #2 is going to invite those who aspire to climb the company ladder. In a three-person competition, the mundane task goes to the lowest performer. That's okay in a private company where management takes calculated risks each day, but what if we're in the public sector? And what if failure on the mundane project means hundreds of thousands of people displaced, hundreds of millions of dollars of emergency repairs, billions in property damage, the loss of water storage in a vital reservoir in a drought-prone state and, potentially, even the loss of human life?

None of this is to suggest that there aren't really smart people working on maintenance (I've worked with a lot of them and I know they're smart) but more of an observation that these people toil in the trenches in obscurity with little appreciation—let alone acclaim—for their efforts. Until something goes wrong.