A couple months ago the senior tech writer asked me why the doomed project was going around in circles. About another project that question might make me defensive, but about this one I could unabashedly say I didn't know, the Program offices just keep doing more things. I then told him, unofficially and sotto voce, that I had two guesses: either the people who need more time don't dare stand up and take responsibility for the delay in front of everyone at a meeting, they instead do things late and screw up everyone else's schedule; or different offices aren't communicating with each other, so they each want different things and don't find out about the conflict until the project is at a stage where everyone is involved. Either way, problems that could have been simple become bigger and more time-consuming because they were mishandled.
Obviously, the previous post is an example of the second problem. I'll bet it's also part of the first too, though. I can't remember if the TMBB from the Training office said a word in the March 9 meeting. I guess he must have, because I can't think of where else the specific "one paragraph" comment would have come from. But if he had any opinions about that or anything else, I don't remember them. Maybe the problem is him not communicating with other offices, or maybe it's his own subordinates not communicating with him, I can't tell. And it's much harder to think about something that's not there but should be than it is to think about something that's there but shouldn't be, so it seems like no one else is noticing this. H. and I know that the lead SME and the Training SME mishandle things because we're get e-mails from them that make things worse, but the Training TMBB just sits back and lets things happen.
If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, that guy should have squeaked at that meeting.
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