Estimates mysteriously turn into commitments, management plans projects and staffing, and sales makes promises to customers.

When things start to slip (and something always does), the shock spreads quickly through the overconstrained system. Forced overtime leads to abandonment of good practices and defects introduced by tired, stressed people, slowing things down even more.

When it's done, we fire the people who we paid to learn the lesson.

And we keep doing it, over and over and over and over...