[pengo]

I worked on a messaging convergence product in the early 2000s. I'd written several components including the POP3 server. The product owner had a demonstration scheduled with a potential telco buyer. Two weeks out, we learned that having IMAP4 capability was critical for the client. IMAP4 was on our roadmap, but still twelve months away. The requirement was to demonstrate IMAP4 in two weeks, not to provide a finished IMAP4 implementation, but neither of the architects could see any way of delivering a demo.

I had a bright idea in the shower one morning, went to work and told our project manager that I could deliver an IMAP4 demo in two days. I explained how, the architects admitted it would work, so I knuckled down and wrote a new API for our POP3 server that understood and responded to high level IMAP4 requests (we didn't need to return message parts or anything more atomic that an entire body).

Of course, the day after we finished testing this, the product owner decided we wouldn't include it in the demonstration, but that's life.