The Sad Sponsor

Or you may be like the many business people we know who doubt that they'll
ever get quality software delivered on time and within budget. Who can blame you?You ran the numbers before the project started. You did the due diligence that you
were supposed to do. You vetted the numbers with all the right people and there was
a unanimous "go." Everyone was excited about the possibilities. Then reality set in.
Several months into the project, the software team started requesting additional
resources in order to hit the target date. After you reluctantly cut the hoped for
profit, you found out that they doubted they would ship anywhere close to the time
you wanted. And the "minor" functionality changes that some stakeholders
requested produced a groundswell of resistance from the developers who got the
shakes when you asked their supposedly flexible technology to deliver. They seem
to have forgotten that the customer is the one paying their salaries.
You had to ship or you would have blown twice your budget with nothing to
show for it. Even if you did ship, there was still a good chance you would get fired
for incompetence when you couldn't even come close to the incremental profit you
promised. The next release doesn't look any better. Is there any chance you can
survive in this organization? Even if you can, do you want to stick around with your
current reputation?
This is the norm. The best you can hope for is to survive without looking like an
idiot.