“It’s naive to think that three presidents and three U.S. military services would have spent so many billions of dollars on a program that doesn’t work, “ [Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute who has worked as a consultant for Lockheed] said. Report: F-35 Inferior to Older US, Foreign Fighters, Stars and Stripes, Aug 11, 2015.

It is naive to believe that because a project has been continued for years, that it must really be OK.  The British Nimrod AEW3 comes to mind.  Many failing and failed big businesses come to mind. I always love these kind of “logical and intuitive” arguments, but it presupposes that the people in charge are actually competent and capable at managing large projects.  The surprise is that many are not, even at the highest levels of an organization.

For how this is possible see A Successful Manager But Never A Successful Project

Are you assessing your project based upon objective criteria or are you just assuming that if you can get it approved it must be a good plan?

For more see The Official Plan: Four Project Management Planning Secrets