What is "gold plating"

vb. (present participle of gold plate English)

Gold plating is a method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto the surface of another metal, most often copper or silver (to make silver-gilt), by chemical or electrochemical plating. This article covers plating methods used in the modern electronics industry; for more traditional methods, often used for much larger objects, see gilding.

Gold plating may refer to:

• Gilding, various traditional methods of depositing a thin layer of gold on the surface of other materials in goldsmithing, jewellery, furniture etc.
• Gold plating, various methods of depositing a thin layer of gold on the surface of other metals in the modern electronics industry
• Gold-plating (European Union law), the practise of national bodies exceeding the terms of European Union directives when implementing them into national law
• In software engineering, government contracting, or other project management, the adding of unneeded enhancements to a product or service in order to inflate the final cost to its buyer and the associated profit realized by its producer

Gold plating in software engineering, or project management, or time management in general, is the error of continuing to work on a project or task well past the point where the extra effort is worth the value it adds (if any). After having met the requirements, the developer works on further enhancing the product, thinking the customer will be delighted to see additional or more polished features, rather than what was asked for or expected. The customer might be disappointed in the results, and the extra effort by the developer might be futile.

Gold plating is also considered a bad project management practice for different project management best practices and methodologies such as: Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) and PRINCE2. In this case, 'gold plating' means the addition of any feature not considered in the original scope plan (PMBoK) or business case (PRINCE2) at any point of the project since it introduces a new source of risks to the original planning i.e. additional testing, documentation, costs, timelines, etc. However, gold plating does not prevent new features from being added to the project; they can be added at any time as long as they follow the official change procedure and the impact of the change in all the areas of the project is taken into consideration.