> If you find yourself on a failing project, squandering tens of millions of pounds and hundreds of man-years of talent, pause for a moment. Think about the fact that almost 140 years ago, civil engineers stopped building bridges that fell down. They stopped building them because the failure of one bridge was laid bare so publicly.

> Think about the fact...

You can think all you want, but it's unlikely to do anybody any good. Sometimes the fault for a failed project lies squarely with the engineers, but this is not at all the usual case. The people who are most responsible for failed software projects is management, and not just engineering management, but the people who engineering management reports to.

And the biggest problem management has is not simply lack of understanding of the nature of software development projects, but, often, a profound lack of interest in learning.

I don't know what to do about that.