It's not just a problem in IT (Score 1)

Im a lowley monkey at a biotech company in Seattle. You would think that because of the ever increasing regulations imposed on this indutry that quality management is desirable. Ha Ha Ha, You IT guys think its bad, try dealing with nothing but PHD's of all types of disciplines, most of whom have little or no management experience or formal training in management. Most biotech companies are started by scientists, not businessmen/women so in any startup biotech, there is a very noticible and lacking skill base in project management. I'm am a lucky monkey, because my boss who is a very brilliant scientist, also happens to be good with people, but it took her 30 or so years in the field to get there. However, my company wastes inordinant amounts of time in innefective and poorly planned meetings. The founders of the company are just starting to catch on to the idea of agenda's and time limits for meetings. What we,(The Monkey's who write code, split DNA, and make the bench work happen) always complain about is one simple thing, well laid plans. To many managers in biotech try to start out by planning every experiment that is going to happen in a project. Pure waste, the reason why it's called science is because we don't know if it is going to work until we try it. It is imperative to do very simplistic experiments first as to not waste time and money. Poor management in this industry can literally cost billions on multiple projects and loss of IP rights, but it still persists because of the GOB/GIRL network. Nepatism rules the roost and scientists take politics to new heights. Just my 2, uh 10 cent's worth