Debug Mode Fallacy
FleetingMost likely due to the feeling good bias.
When you provide useless internal information when someone asks about progress.
You committed to do X to Bob. When Bob asks about progress about X, you tell “I still need to do Y”.
As if giving information (even useless) about X gives the image of being in control.
when someone asks to commitment
This happens when someone asks to do X. To me, this fallacy occurs to give the impression that you know what you are committed to while it is still unclear.
That means that you are not ready to be appropriately engaged. This debug mode may be a way to define what done means and what doing looks like in front of the other party. This does not follow the Grice maxims, as the other party does not care in general about the internal details.
when someone asks for progress
I guess that it helps reducing the cognitive dissonance along with some guilt about having forgotten X or not having been appropriately engaged with regard to X.
If you are appropriately engaged, and if in particular you committed to a deadline and feel confident about it, you could just tell that everything is ok. This is possible only if you have periodic review to challenge your commitment. If you don’t think realistic to fulfill the deadline, then you should renegotiate your engagements. Also, you should regularly inform the stakeholder (after the periodic review for instance) about your feeling. That way, the nee to ask for progress becomes obsolete.