I think at least part of the problem is that todays "agile" methodologies lure people into almost completely neglecting analysis and design, as if these steps are forbidden in agile. So for many dev teams I have seen, agile basically means "we have no plan".
I’d characterize it as the degradation of the product manager role. Too many project managers get promoted to product but don’t really know what that job entails so they just project manage harder.
And to a project manager “I’m gonna take a week and think about it” is not an acceptable answer.
I agree that many teams, in an effort to move away from waterfall development and Big Design Up Front, have gone the opposite way and completely skip system design. Which is a mistake, because you need some upfront design.
As Dave Thomas said: “big upfront design is dumb. No upfront design is dumber”.
