- With a handful of exceptions, the senior-most software developers are incompetent for their pay grade and ignorant of industry standards and best practices like unit-testing, design patterns, distributed computing, agile development. They joined the company early on and got promoted quickly when the company grew rapidly, but their experience is 60-100% only at GA. Managers and directors are even worse.
- No training and ineffective mentoring because of the above mentioned problem.
- The software quality is so poor that maintenance costs are 3-4x the original development costs. Refactoring is not allowed because it reflects poorly on the original developer. Instead, the approach is to 'start over' without learning from past mistakes, which are carried over into the next generation of software.
- No fact-based decision-making. Directorial decisions are based on prejudices or upon advice of their favorites instead of examining the facts.
- No accountability for mistakes. Instead senior developers and managers are well-skilled in deflecting and defending criticism, deferring improvements, re-directing blame to maintain their status quo.
- Real nepotism (it is a family-owned enterprise) towards family and friends.
- Future prospects are poor. The primary customer (USAF) is unhappy with the software, cancelled contracts, and is no longer purchasing Predators; end-of-life is scheduled for 2030.
