In a problem-solving workshop that I participated in, 30 people in one room simulated a company, and the 'salesmen' were selling something we didn't know how to make. And I was part of that. I was also one of the designers for a product we didn't yet know how to make. It was hilarious. Everyone was in one room, and yet we did not communicate, estimate, and make plans based on the reality of the product development process -- a process that we hadn't yet learned how to do. This happens even more so in companies where the salesmen and the developers never meet; where the consequences are not aligned with the promises.
A typical rant about the way most software projects are done says "Late, over budget, buggy systems is the norm." and blames managers for not understanding the difficulties of software development: "So when I now go to a manager and attempt to explain that the coupling in the system is going to crush us in a year or so unless we take steps to address it now, their world view doesn't include a perspective that let's them say 'Oh right. I remember making this mistake.' [...] They can see the value of features and functions, but decoupling the system is not something you really value until you've felt the pain of not actively doing it."
The manager described above doesn't feel the pain from the consequences of his decisions (So why is he in the position to make those decisions?). Jared Diamond says this is one of the root causes for societies to collapse: "A theme that emerges from Norse Greenland as well as from other places, is insulation of the decision making elite from the consequences of their actions. That is to say, in societies where the elites do not suffer from the consequences of their decisions, but can insulate themselves, the elite are more likely to pursue their short-term interests, even though that may be bad for the long-term interests of the society, including the children of the elite themselves."
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