SNIP
>
>Another thing that usually emerges is the story behind a "we have ALWAYS done it THIS WAY" rule. There's a history of a strong boss who invented a rule to prevent some common screwups which were happening in his time. He's long retired, and nobody remembers the reason for the rule, they all just blindly adhere to it (and occasionally get bad rap for violating it). And now his heirs are trying to push that rule into the project, but can't explain it.

But I believe this can be hard to distinguish from the "rules" that were put in place for very legitimate reasons but those reasons are now unknown because the 'institutional memory' was long ago sent packing in favour of cheaper "starter" workers.
Any "rule" that can't be explained deserves at least a reasonably deep investigation as to its possible roots before it is thrown overboard.