We'd fallen into the classic project trap, the trap that makes ends harder than the beginnings.
Projects accumulate a pile of annoying tasks people postpone, but in order to ship the product, that pile must be emptied. Things that are less fun to do are usually harder to do, which means the pile isn't ordinary work but a pile of unloved, unwanted, complex work:
- We do things we like first.
- We do things we don't like last.
- The things we don't like tend to be harder.
- Late changes have cascading effects.
This means that at the end of nay project, you're left with a pile of things no one wants to do and are the hardest to do (or worse, no one is quite sure how to do them).