An AntiPattern You are a manager and you tell upper managers that everything is right on track, no matter what. This also happens when you tell upper managers that all your subordinates are equal, or you simply compensate their deficiencies by lying, or compensate their best abilities by hiding them. There is no meaningful information for upper managers, so you MakeYourselfNecessary. Implementation strategy includes * MeasurementObfuscations - deliberately use meaningless productivity measurement, such as LOC/day for a maintenance project. Whenever the measurement is presented, preface with "Well, since we really want as few code changes as possible for a project under maintenance, LOC cannot reflect the true productivity of our staff, but here it is anyway." ----- What is the derivation of the name? I don't see the connection between it and the description. ''I thought it was akin to "have some warm milk and go back to sleep".. a way to keep your manager content.'' * could be, but in the US, that might be better communicated by "warm milk"