The urban legend goes that if you drop a frog into boiling water, it jumps out immediately. But if you slowly heat the water, the frog doesn’t notice the rising danger until it’s too late.

Whether or not that’s biologically accurate, it’s a useful metaphor for project governance.

Take, for example, the iconic North Sydney Olympic Pool.

That project’s budget didn’t jump from under $60 million to more than $120 million overnight. The blowout happened through dozens of incremental approvals, scope tweaks, political compromises, and “just one more” decisions made at every level of oversight.

No doubt each change felt manageable in isolation, but together they pushed the project far beyond what was responsible or sustainable, until the financial impact ultimately broke the public purse.

For once a project becomes detached from its business case, it stops being a strategic initiative and becomes just a project to be managed—regardless of the consequences.

So, what would you have done?