Comment by rgblambda
4 years ago
Possibilities include:
1. He's a control freak and has to have a hand in every decision.
2. He's opposed to the project and wants it to fail.
3. The previously agreed decision benefits a rival within his organization and he's trying to reverse this.
4. He loves hearing the sound of his own voice.
5. He's incapable of keeping up with the current discussion and only works out what people were saying after the meeting so brings his belated contributions to the next meeting.
I eliminated and/or monetized clients like this to death by just switching all my billing to hourly. It's incredible how quickly a dude like that will put a sock in it about the last meeting when you mention the price of revisiting a decision you already built code on top of.
Especially when it's clear you aren't trying to harvest extra hours and just don't need the hassle of accommodating their vanity.
6. The decision process is half baked, and nothing is ever completely closed. As a result, nobody shuts this guy down.
7. He's read the book linked from this thread and is actively trying to subvert the process.
:)
8. Good decisions and solutions are avoided because the team has more familiarity with mediocre to bad ones.
Glad this one no longer applies to me!