Factors contributing to the success of a development project, in decreasing order of importance:

1. the skill of the team

2. the determination of the team to succeed

3. appropriate choice of technologies

4. process

In my experience management agendas are much more likely to interfere with 1-4 than to help. There needs to be some kind of hippocratic oath for development managers and process enthusiasts. Everybody pays lip service to Fred Brooks but people somehow seem to keep forgetting his message.