Very true.
technology is a slave to personality. It doesn't matter how good the design, when there are unresolved problems in the organization.
Amen. And that's exactly what a lot of the latest project management styles try to fix.
I almost never dread technical challenges (especially in the cookie-cutter LOB apps I build in my day job), but I do fear organizational dysfunction.
Basically any modern project management style focused on people and needs instead of reams of documentation.
I've unfortunately never worked at a place that does this right, but I had the strong impression some really good companies do it right - I was blown away by Guidewire back when I was in the insurance business, for example, they really seemed to do project management right ( see https://www.guidewire.com/blog/best-practices , and stuff like this - https://www.guidewire.com/blog/best-practices/implementation... , Scott Hatland really impressed me as a guy that lived this kind of person-first approach ).
Since it's more of a people and organization thing than a formal "project management style" thing, I don't know if there's one "style" that does this above all - Agile, Scrum, Kanban, can all be twisted by people who don't understand the core concepts.
I think teams that succeed do so despite using Agile (or any other management fad). A cohesive team that communicates well can succeed using Agile, sure, but the process is incidental; they would succeed using most any methodology. Survivorship bias leads people to believe that Agile (or whatever methodology-of-the-week is in play) is causative, when it is actually epiphenomenal.
I would suspect that a small percentage of all projects undertaken are good, according to these criteria. Yet I can't help but think that, while these good projects might engender an enjoyable experience for all involved in its' development, that it wouldn't necessarily lead to a successful product in the marketplace.
What I'm getting at is I wonder good project, while nice to work on, leads to a good product. I am guessing most products probably didn't arise out of a good project, so from a business standpoint, how much is it worth to worry about attaining all these aspects.