duck

A software feature added simply so that management will notice it and order
it to be removed. This gives management something to do, and makes them look
like they are "adding value" instead of being superfluous appendages to the
organization.

"The artist working on the queen animations for Battle Chess was aware of
this tendency, and came up with an innovative solution. He did the animations
for the queen the way that he felt would be best, with one addition: he gave
the queen a pet duck. He animated this duck through all of the queen's
animations, had it flapping around the corners. He also took great care to
make sure that it never overlapped the 'actual' animation. Eventually, it came
time for the producer to review the animation set for the queen. The producer
sat down and watched all of the animations. When they were done, he turned to
the artist and said, 'that looks great. Just one thing - get rid of the duck.'"