Companies all want projects done immediately. Fast-moving e-businesses (are there any other kind?), web development consulting firms, branding outlets, ad firms, etc, all want to do more than these companies want, because they have profit margins and employ self-starters who can grow their businesses. At the intersection of what the company needs, and what the contracts want to overcharge for are what both agree MUST be done (and in reality will be all that ever gets done). Some people call these
must-haves,
mission-critical elements, or
low-hanging fruit. Lately, though, companies call them Mandatories:
Mandatory (nout)(plural: Mandatories) = an element of a project or task that must be completed or the project / task fails.
Sounds nice, but that's not what the noun "mandatory" means. From Merriam-Webster.com:
Main Entry: mandatory / Function: noun / plural man·da·to·ries / Date: 1661
: one given a
mandate; especially : a nation holding a
mandate from the League of Nations
And surely, companies don't want nations holding mandates from the League of Nations to approve their word, do they? That's rhetorical, dummy.
