This kind of thing has been going on for a long time. In the late 80s I worked for an engineering consulting firm that contracted out engineers to the US armed

This kind of thing has been going on for a long time. In the late 80s I worked for an engineering consulting firm that contracted out engineers to the US armed forces. I was between tasks, and my boss pulled me into a contract w/Air Force Logistics Command for a database to track parts failures in the field. They'd had the contract for months, but it wasn't until a rep from AFLC was going to visit and write a progress report that they cared. I coded up a demo in 2 weeks, and showed that it had all the basic functionality called for in the contract (though it had a few bugs). My boss told the rep I was their chief engineered just hired for the project (I was actually pretty junior, but happened to know a few things about databases). I actually thought it was a fun project. I wanted to finish it, but after the rep left they put it aside and moved me to another project.