What is a white elephant in project management?

Question

I was just reading a small article on PM and I have seen the term "white elephant" repeated several times in the article.

What is a white elephant in PM? Is it some kind of a project type? Is it a term used to signify large projects?

Answer 1

A white elephant is a large project that falls significantly short of its goals and the costs of upkeep outweigh the usefulness of the product.  Budget continues to be spent but the project never completely realizes its goal.