As this metaphor caused some meta-discussion, I would like to know what it exactly means to the majority and what the german counterpart is:
My understanding of this metaphor:
It's basically murphy's law expressed as a idiom. If something can happen, it will happen... it's just natural. That's why I used it for describing why someone might pull the plug on a project. Because of constructional flaws, planning errors, mis-communication, mixing up something, no projects goes a perfect planned way, it's a open process ....... you know, nobody is perfect and sh.. just happens. Remember the famous Forrest Gump scene, he is not really swearing loudly.
I don't know a good german version of this idiom (maybe "menschliches Versagen") so I'm excited to see some suggestions. Oh, and as a hint, the possible german version cannot contain Scheiße, otherwise I already would know this idiom :) So think about other ones. Common ones, no artificial creations, I doubt there are many good ones...