Re: It's still happening
As has been said that "managers" can manage anything lets switch from software bugs to comparably inconvenient machine issues.
Lets say (of course puuuurely fictitional, not that any such company might exist) there is a customer who wants a certain specialised lifting device for a specific purpose delivered on a specific date.
What might happen is that the date passes and the purchased machine doesnt exist. After a considerably inconvenient amount of time, a machine is delivered that cannot do what it should. After another delay and the usual blamegame tournament, additions and modifications are made to the machine, the cost explodes, any timeline decides to commit suicide, the amount of legalese threats and suchlike explodes.
In the end, the machine delivered and remodified is not quite what was purchased, cost a lot more and is a lot more expensive than any party involved ever assumed.
Oh, and i am talking about pure private sector, no government or suchlike (except of course when it comes to H&S and taxes) is involved.
So who is to blame ?
- The customer due to incorrect understanding and/or imprecise communication of his own needs ?
- The guys in the office who despite years and decades of working for the lifting device company somehow did not filter out uncertainties, imprecisions and/or outright irreal bullshyte in the contract and machine definitions ?
- The mechanical construction due to oversight of really obvious information blunders like said imprecisions, lack of definition of all kinds (including measurements, intended purpose of the machine and the functions it must deliver) ?
- The electrical/electronical construction for not clarifying the exact functions/processes/safety standards/ whateverlectrics ?
- The welders for not mystically getting visions that the construction diagrams include false measurements ?
- The painters for not mystically "knowing" thet the colour scheme in the papers cannot be the correct one ?
- The hydraulics and mechanics people who should have known better that to trust the orders and papers they were given as clearly a totally new customer is well known to want it in a specific way ?
- The electricians because they did not adhere to standards and regulations they were never informed of ?
and for the final question: Where in all this mess is the so called "management" happening ?
IMHO it all comes down to the issue of unclear/imprecise/false information that is never checked or corrected, milestones that only exist on paper to make haste, not to be used as checkpoints, no oversight or control, no checks, no corrections, noone to actually manage the project but a chain of seperate instances that cannot and do not question orders or the previous instances.
So they are to blame ?
Or is there someone to blame who actively discouraged any checks,tests, confirmations,correctures, someone whos only intent is to deliver anything regardless of its state so that he/she can say "i made sure we delivered" ?
Again: where is "management" in all this ? How does it prevent such blunders ? Whats it good for if it is unable to actually manage to such extent that everywhere in the production everything goes as smooth and well informed as possible ?
Last words: the described chaos is sadly not as fictitional as it might seem. The absurdity and irreality is hard to belive, i know, and only those who suffered similar "projects" may believe this can happen. But even if you think its pure absurd fiction, where in the descibed mess have you seen "management" ?