self-licking ice cream cone
n.— «This is the “self-licking ice cream cone” approach to analyzing results of experiments or exercises: decide what result you want to achieve and then build an event to meet success. This approach, however, does not provide the Army with an accurate assessment of the hypothesis being tested and is therefore flawed.» —by Williamson Murray Army Transformation: A View From The U.S. Army War College July, 2001. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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