The new CIO at the big bank where pilot fish consults wants to be able to track the hours that each IT staffer spends on each project, so fish creates a timesheet system. From time to time, management decides that hours for a given project were entered with the wrong code, and either the affected employees have to resubmit their timesheets or fish has to change the data in the back-end database.

The CIO decides that one particular project shifted into a new phase two months ago. So fish creates a new project doc for the staff on that project to use going forward and waits to hear which past timesheets will need to be altered. Meanwhile, the CIO and his assistant look over the timesheets for the superseded project and notice that one employee, Chris, has properly entered all his hours for the past six weeks with the new project code. CIO wants to know why Chris can be a timekeeping superstar, in the hope that there’s a lesson that can be absorbed by the whole staff.

But Chris’ secret is not something the CIO wants replicated. He had been lax about entering his hours, and when he got around to catching up, the new project code was in the system and he was able to choose it when submitting his timesheets.

Says fish: “Chris had looked good in the eyes of the CIO thanks to procrastination.”

Sharky says, “Don’t delay!” Send me your true tales of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.