In software development, a death march is an ongoing project that is destined to fail. Usually a death march comes about because of unrealistic or overly optimistic expectations in scheduling, feature scope, or both.

A software engineer may find herself on a death march more than once in her career. The knowledge of the doomed nature of the project weighs heavily on the psyche of the programmer, as if they are helplessly watching the team as it merrily marches into the sea.

Often, the death march will involve desperate attempts to right the course of the project by asking team members to work especially gruelling hours, weekends, or by attempting to "throw bodies at the problem". These desperate tactics invariably fail and only serve to make the death march all the more painful.

See also: Bataan Death March, burnout