Re: I'm not a developer but this is a genuine question...
> Six months later and many tens of thousands of Euros later Senior Management realised what had happened and canned the whole thing. Then they started again with the same people in charge. Doh!
Seen that happen too! In a previous life, I got called it to assess a certain system that had been in development hell for years. I spent a few weeks being trained in the system at the development centre and then went out to put it through its paces, even though by that point I knew all too well where the problem was. The night before leaving for the test site I told my client, off the record, that they had a systemic problem in that the development team were incompetent (I do not say this lightly, they actually and objectively lacked all four of skills, experience, qualifications and luck). I went out and tested anyway. When I got back the development team were no more, the parent company having closed down the site.
So far so good. New start.
Except, I get called in to go and assist the new team get started and who were there? The most useless of the useless old team. Turns out that they offered people the option of redundancies or joining the new team, in a different country, with much worse conditions. Of course, only those who were unemployable took the latter option.
Must be about fifteen years now. Last I heard about three years ago they were still trying to get this project out the door.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
