Executive Meddling/Real Life
Examples of Executive Meddling in Real Life include:
- Early in World War II, Messerschmitt had a workable design for a jet-propelled interceptor that would theoretically wreak havoc on the Allies' air forces. They called it the Me 262. Fortunately for the free world, Hitler decided that what the Luftwaffe really needed wasn't an interceptor, but a tactical fighter-bomber. This arguably resulted in the Me 262's entry into the war being delayed until 1944, at which point it was too late.
- There's Capability Maturity Model (CMM) devised by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, that's supposed to provide organizations guidance on the processes for developing and maintaining software and how to evolve toward better software engineering and management. It rates from 1 (Ad hoc & Chaotic: the organization completely relies on the initiative of individual developers, i.e. development works much like a small FLOSS project on SourceForge, etc) to 5 (Continuous Improvement: the organization has proper feedback systems, improves things proactively and learns to not repeat the mistakes). But since in reality 1 is not nearly the worst case - as illustrated by the rest of this page, for one - others made The Capability Im-Maturity Model (CiMM), which continues the scale downward from 0 (Indifference: management doesn't care until some crisis develops, then brings as a "silver bullet" solution something marked with whatever buzzword is currently promoted as the Key To Success) to -3 (Sabotage: the organization itself rewards failure and poor performance, and actively seeks to discredit and disrupt the work of other organizations).
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