Physical Characteristics: At first glance, you see a normal giraffe in front of you, in perfect alignment with the specs – the long neck, spots, and enchanting eyelashes. Contrary to the initial specification and expectations, however, the creature appears to have an elephant-like trunk. This leads to the cardinal point being significantly off, which results in numerous problems with balance and functionality. Consequently, the animal shows a striking similarity in its clumsiness to that of an actual elephant in a porcelain shop. The multitude of shapes and forms in which you will find a Giraphant is just as broad as the multitude of change projects in general.

Conservation Status: The population remains stable, even though the survival rate of each Giraphant is very low and Giraphants rarely reproduce.

Area of Habitat: Unspecified roles and muddled responsibilities, lack of clarity and well-defined cuts in project phases, inability to conduct necessary discussion when the initial requirements and criteria get renegotiated at a later stage of a project – this is a fertile soil for a Giraphant to be conceived and start developing.

Conception: The exact moment of the origin of the Giraphant remains mysterious and surrounded by rumors and legends, mostly dependent on its future development.

Pre-Natal development: It all starts innocently when a project team is building a typical Giraffe and there is seemingly nothing to worry about. The customer keeps submitting additional requests – i.e., the amount and the shade of the spots, the length of the eyelashes, the size of the hooves, the exact shape of the tail tuft.  It is precisely the tail tuft that becomes one of the early signs that a Giraphant might be on its way. The tail tuft becomes such a focal point of a project for an extended period as if it were crucial for the survival of the Giraffe. It will be redefined about five hundred times. And at some point – precisely  when one is so obsessed with the tail tuft– not only the legs and the neck are getting extended and prolongated, but the nose as well. And then, before you know it, you have a fully grown Giraphant in front of you.

Infant survival rate: The early days of a Giraphant are the most critical for its future development and life expectancy. Giraphants are born quite weak and require a large amount of attention and support, being dependent on them for existence. This is why some just receive a coup de grace shortly upon birth. Some, however, will undergo costly and painful procedures to become either an accomplished Giraffe or an Elephant, being able to enjoy normal life afterward. A lot will be kept alive at enormous cost either just out of principle or as a direct result of the sunk cost fallacy, where the resources invested in the project so far may keep outweighing the potential benefits of abandoning it.

Fun Fact: Like a cocoon to a butterfly, a Giraphant may be a transition state for a Unicorn: an incredibly and uniquely successful project. Unlike a butterfly, however, there is no possibility to tell beforehand whether a particular Giraphant has a realizable Unicorn potential. This path of development is almost as rare as Unicorns themselves, but the sheer possibility often becomes the source of inspiration and hopium for many generations of project managers.

Diet: The creature is notorious for its insatiable appetite. In most cases and if not stopped, Giraphant will be devouring all possible resources, including time, energy, and money.

Future development: The future of the new Giraphant is highly correlated with the life expectancy of the newly born. After the Giraphant has materialized, nobody knows how it happened, cannot remember the exact moment of the conception and in most cases is not willing to accept the responsibility for the result. The respective documents are most often missing, and finger-pointing starts to find the next of kin who would assume the responsibility for the creature's future (and the past). This turns out to be a scapegoat. (The above holds for all cases unless the Giraphant emerges into a Unicorn – then everybody wants to adopt it as their brainchild).