[mgkimsal]

"Namely, the business units are so disconnected from engineering they don't even realize the costs of what they're asking for, and the engineers are so disconnected that they reap zero benefit from whatever business goal is going to be accomplished by this."

I don't think it's just that they're disconnected - some of the orgs I've been in - they simply do not care, and never will, even if they completely understand the "costs". Why not? Because they don't have to pay it. It's not coming out of their budget, the 'costs' of higher support later on don't affect anyone who's making the decision right now, and damnit, we have to get this out now or we'll lose marketshare!

This is a toxic division, and seems to be more prevalent at companies that do not see themselves as software-based companies. Yammer is all tech - Yammer couldn't have existed 30 years ago, but plenty of more traditional companies still see software as something divorces from their main business.

[mason55]

It happens in tech companies too, especially enterprise companies. Project managers want to close out on their project and deliver to their customers and fuck anything else that's going on.

[w_t_payne]

I have similar experiences - it all comes down to accounting structures, in the end.