Smokescreen

A low-cost set of activities and data designed to distract the attention of people who cannot tell the difference from the poor performance of the real work not getting done per schedule. Or, occasionally, the marketing of a scheduled activity to cover for the execution of an unscheduled activity that would otherwise have made management very nervous if discovered before the results came out 1.

Footnotes
  1. No evidence exists. No conviction can be obtained.[]