Another part of the pattern is “as the deadline approaches”… You can’t throw more bodies at a project near the end, that’s a recipe for disaster. You can ONLY do one of two things: extend the deadline or drop features. Being a natural skeptic, I look at projects from very early stages and pick a a triage plan very early on.

Finally, I never, ever, ever short shrift QA. It’s much better to wait until you have a complete “release candidate” product and give QA the time and support they need to get through it in as short a time as possible. As explained above, if you send over a plane with one wing, three engines and no windows or doors, you’ll extend the actual time for weeks.

It’s unnatural to some people to think that way unless they’ve done it — kind of like counter-steering on a bike. But once you have the confidence to see it through like this, you’ll be able to stand on your results.

There seems to be a huge disconnect between executive goals/direction and reality.
Phase 1
Somebody has an idea. Unresearched mandate to make it a product within a very short time frame.

Press release about the new product that hasn’t been well thought out.

Dump it into engineering.

Make a loose plan with an end date for delivery.

Take too much time discussing the plan.
Phase 2:
Develop on the fly

Test, undocumented Ad Hoc, based on conversational specs

Final Phase:
As the deadline approaches Exec justification crisis kicks in and asks:
Where are the specs
Where are the metrics
etc.etc.

And the cycle continues……..