>Given the amount of time spent on the application, the fact that it could only handle a few thousand simultaneous users is something that should have been established LONG before the rollout. Even if that was the complete fault of the technical team, this is something the project managers should have realized. The fact that this wasn't a key requirement in big red letters is a big fat failing grade for the project management function (and/or the chief executive).
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>It's inconceivable that there could have been any type of meaningful prototype approach along the way.

But there seems to me, with the advent of 'Agile' and all that, prototyping has kinda gone the way of the dinosaurs. Most of the 'Agile' groups I've seen are FAR more concerned with making the deadline then actually producing workable code. Please note that I'm not saying that Agile methodology doesn't work - what I've seen is that middle management gets hold of a new buzzword and the people in the trenches are expected to 'make it so'.