[singular]

I think the key factors are politics and managerial ignorance - there appears to be a general consensus that the most qualified person for the job is the a. biggest suck up and b. the least technically knowledgeable guy/gal available.

The problem with having politicals in senior positions is that they will, by their nature, happily abandon honesty + humility - the two most important qualities required by devs/management for any software project to even have a chance of something approaching sane completion.

Unfortunately politics and honesty/humility are not compatible.

Luckily there are companies out there that 'get it', but depressingly few.

[loewenskind]

>The problem with having politicals in senior positions

This is a problem having politicals in any position of power what so ever.

[kemayo]

The old saw about how the only person who should be in power is the person who doesn't want to be in power, huh?

[loewenskind]

Well, to be honest I think in some future time people will find it so strange that there was a time when decisions about critical aspects of a country where in the hands of people who were only experts at making people like them.

[gaius]

This is why creating an "advanced technology" or "R&D" unit in the business is very risky. You have to be sure you actually do get the elite, and not just the people who want to play with shiny toys and have the connections to get the plum assgnments.

[Tamerlin]

That's very true, and sadly it's also true that most of the time, the people choosing the purported elite are the least qualified to do so.