Ham And Eggs

The Joke

A pig and a chicken are grabbing burritos at La Brasera, when the chicken has spark of inspiration.

"Hey, pig! Whad'ya say you and I open up a food cart?"

"That's an interesting idea," says the pig. "What should we call it?"

"Hmmmmm..." says the chicken, scratching his beak. "I got it! We'll call it.....Ham and Eggs!"

"I don't know," says the pig, wiping salsa from his snout.

"What's not to know? It's a no-brainer! It's brilliant," says the chicken. "It's low startup. We have everything we need to pull it off, and we'll be pulling in money wing over hoof in no time!"

"It's just that....well...," the pig continues. "You'd be contributing, but you wouldn't be...committed."

The Lesson

Individuals' involvement in projects often necessitate different levels of responsibility and accountability. The roles of participants in a project are commensurate to the degree their ham is on the line.

This idea is frequently used in Agile Project Management models, such as Scrum to delineate roles between committed, core members of the project team, and active contributors who do not share equally in the ultimate stakes of success/failure.