There's always the pressure to deliver, I don't doubt that. The problem was multi-fold as I saw it. 1) The priority project was what ever executive sponsor complained last ... meaning high profile projects were often under undue pressure even when things were going along nicely; 2) Pet projects were often pushed to the front causing project plans to be constantly re-worked not to mention forecasting and resource planning in general; and 3) decisions on how things should be done were being pushed from the top down in some cases... at one point we had a division head that thought we should all have the same training and could all be these "Super Consultants" ... didn't matter if we were an Architect, Developer, Business Analyst, Functional Analyst, Project Manager.... we should be able to, on a moment's notice, be able to fill any one or more of those roles on a project. Not only did it not look good on paper, but it didn't work out in practice either. Those of us that are developers are developers for a reason. BAs are BAs for a reason. They don't want to do our job, and we don't want to do theirs.

That was at the beginning of a big shift for the company too. We were trying to figure the future out. The past 3 years have been rough, but they are finally starting to stabilize and get better. I don't think we're out of the woods, but things are probably on the right path. I have to give my manager credit though, she's busting her hump making sure that we continue to have work in these lean times, even if it means doing cross-training and getting into areas out of our comfort zone.

-tg