Novel by Pierre Boulle (ISBN:0099445026) concerning a group of British prisoners-of-war who are ordered by their Japanese captors to build a railway bridge over the river Kwai in Burma (so that the Japanese army can more easily ship supplies to support their war effort), and what happens when a band of British saboteurs shows up to destroy the bridge.  (Originally in French, though translations in English are widely available).

Later turned into a fine movie starring William Holden and Sir Alec Guinness.  Boulle, although not participating in the film production (and not speaking English!) won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for the film--he received the screenwriting credit when the real screenwriters were blacklisted.  

http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0050212

Perfect stereotyping of British leadership (and engineering) in a hopeless situation. Chin up, old boy!

The line "Madness!... Madness!... Madness!" just about sums up what it can be like to have to maintain projects written using CowboyCoding.

The real-life people who worked on the Burma railway were part of a real DeathMarch project.

''One of the more disturbing aspects of this story is that they did a good job of something they knew to be wrong.''

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If you think your project is a DeathMarch, a fun tactic is to (along with the other team members) be heard conspicuously whistling "Colonel Bogey's March" while going to and from meetings...

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