[j_baker]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_phases_of_a_big_project

The six phases of a project:

1. Enthusiasm

2. Disillusionment

3. Panic

4. Search for the guilty

5. Punishment of the innocent

6. Rewards for the uninvolved

This is the way it seems to have played out (and the way project/startup failure almost always seems to play out).

[specialist]

Awesome. Thank you. Very similar to the "process" I've witnessed and documented. From memory:

1) Assemble non-experts, non-stakeholders

2) Misidentify problem

3) Establish quorum

4) Do not communicate decisions

5) Everyone runs off in separate directions

6) Assign blame

7) Repeat.

Given the challenges of organizational psychology (aka herding kittens), where trying harder won't change outcomes, I support the strategy of multiple competing teams, as detailed in the book Design Rules: The Power of Modularity.

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Rules-Vol-Power-Modularity/dp/0...