[loup-vaillant]

Fred Brooks probably had reasons to think the untried else would have been better. His experience, hindsight from later cases, and also the architecture manager's predictions, which did turn out correct.

When someone makes three predictions, two turn out to be correct, and the third ended up not tried, we would do well to think twice before dismissing that third prediction.

[stephengillie]

Why didn't he work internally to prevent these issues? It sounds like he was pleased to let them fail, so he could be correct with no effort.

Why are we taking advice from someone who lets others fail so he and his team look better? This kind of internal competition destroyed Motorola and damages many other organizations.

[loup-vaillant]

> Why didn't he work internally to prevent these issues?

What makes you think he didn't?

> Why are we taking advice from someone who lets others fail so he and his team look better?

From the quote, Fred brooks was clearly the boss of both the architecture manager and the control program manager. He wasn't part of any one team. I don't see the kind of conflict of interest you're hinting at.

> It sounds like he was pleased to let them fail, so he could be correct with no effort.

To me, it sounds like he simply made a bad call, and was saying "oops".