A deadline appears from somewhere above. The scope is already fixed. The complexity is underestimated. The team is told that it is “empowered”, which somehow means that it is now responsible for making the impossible possible. Quality becomes the thing everyone still talks about, but nobody has time to protect. People start cutting corners, but quietly, because admitting reality has become more expensive than pretending.

This is especially true when the date, scope, quality, and uncertainty are all treated as unchangeable facts. The damage starts when people pretend that a fixed date also means everything else must stay fixed.