Michael Cooch
Educated in New Zealand, Michael achieved an Honours Degree in Manufacturing and Industrial Technology. Since then he has gone on to achieve Project Management Professional (PMP), PRINCE2 Practitioner and a Diploma in Business Analysis (ISEB).
He has worked at the leading edge of the programme/ portfolio/ project control industry for 9 years and has experience working with Accenture, Unilever, London Stock Exchange, NHS, Morgan Stanley, Orange, TYCO and the Office of Rail Regulation.
View all articles by Michael Cooch
Derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. In the Christian religions, it is considered a sin because of the excessive desire for food, or its withholding from the needy.
Depending on the culture, it can be seen as either a vice or a sign of status. Where food is relatively scarce, being able to eat well might be something to take pride in (although this can also result in a moral backlash when confronted with the reality of those less fortunate). Where food is routinely plentiful, it may be considered a sign of self control to resist the temptation to over-indulge.
Early Church leaders (e.g., Thomas Aquinas) took a more expansive view of gluttony arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods. He went so far as to prepare a list of five ways to commit gluttony, including:
- Praepropere - eating too soon
- Laute - eating too expensively
- Nimis - eating too much
- Ardenter - eating too eagerly
- Studiose - eating too daintily
For the purposes of this article this list of 5 ways to commit gluttony will be used to outline some classic project transgressions and their associated penitence.
