> [Alan] asked his department manager to assign another three programmers as a programming team
The scenario's quite believable. Many "programmers" out there got transferred from a user department, lied on their CV, and/or cheated the aptitude test. They can't code very well. Or maybe their coding level's up to scratch but they can't coordinate and communicate with other programmers, hence meetings and numerous drafts of what's been agreed on. Or perhaps work is hard to find or some programmers are getting older, so they deliberately complicate the task or the program to keep themselves in a job.
The scenario's quite believable. Many "programmers" out there got transferred from a user department, lied on their CV, and/or cheated the aptitude test. They can't code very well. Or maybe their coding level's up to scratch but they can't coordinate and communicate with other programmers, hence meetings and numerous drafts of what's been agreed on. Or perhaps work is hard to find or some programmers are getting older, so they deliberately complicate the task or the program to keep themselves in a job.