This is a phenomenal failure of management. The failure of the team is always the fault of the leader.
I've seen this so many times in industry. Some decision on high comes through that costs need to be cut, which means cutting corners. It always means cutting corners, because the only way they have to measure costs is Salary × Butts-In-Seats. So they hire lower cost people (i.e. less experienced, often off-shore where there is no oversight on process) and cut the number of people (often several key roles that would put the brakes on bad plans).
They make a short-staffed team of people who don't know any better, then look around confused when things go wrong. "But the PowerPoints said we'd be successful. The management consultants said everything was on track".
When it's a website for a government bureau, people just throw up their hands and act like this is normal. The customer eats the cost of the useless product and they start over, usually with the same contractor on an extension, often not learning any lessons in the process (how could they? They can't imagine a world in which any of this is their fault).
It should never happen for any project. It should be a damn crime, upwards of fraud, with massive fines. But stuff that can kill people, this should be sending people to jail.
I can hear the meetings in my head, I've been through them so many times. "Who knew this was a problem?" "Uhhh, I brought it up at the outset, you said it wasn't my place to bring it up." "You're on report for your negative attitude."
I've seen this so many times in industry. Some decision on high comes through that costs need to be cut, which means cutting corners. It always means cutting corners, because the only way they have to measure costs is Salary × Butts-In-Seats. So they hire lower cost people (i.e. less experienced, often off-shore where there is no oversight on process) and cut the number of people (often several key roles that would put the brakes on bad plans).
They make a short-staffed team of people who don't know any better, then look around confused when things go wrong. "But the PowerPoints said we'd be successful. The management consultants said everything was on track".
When it's a website for a government bureau, people just throw up their hands and act like this is normal. The customer eats the cost of the useless product and they start over, usually with the same contractor on an extension, often not learning any lessons in the process (how could they? They can't imagine a world in which any of this is their fault).
It should never happen for any project. It should be a damn crime, upwards of fraud, with massive fines. But stuff that can kill people, this should be sending people to jail.
I can hear the meetings in my head, I've been through them so many times. "Who knew this was a problem?" "Uhhh, I brought it up at the outset, you said it wasn't my place to bring it up." "You're on report for your negative attitude."