>You're quite right though.. I've seen fear of change ruin more projects then just about anything else. I've about come to the conclusion to not take work from a company that will not let me also reengineer their business processes or at least have a management-level input. If you don't have the boss's ear you're essentially going to fail it seems. Some lackey will often want to ruin you to make their own failures (why are you on the job in the first place?) seem less eggregious.

Yeah, one of the first task of a developer should be to determine the formal table of organization and the informal one. Determining who really has the power in a company and getting them onboard is a must! I was involved in a project in Nashville last year where there were two power players who canned the whole project via passive aggression and probably have sent the company into bankruptcy by now. I knew there was a reason I took all those Psychology courses!< g >