> Is there a point at which the process gets in the way and becomes an end unto itself?

Heavy processes are common, unfortunately. Some people - especially management - religiously imagine that *processes* produce products. So they overdo the processes and forget that it's really a handful of hard-working, smart people who *actually* create the products. For upper management, it's frightening to even think that their business is in the hands of few geeks, and so the close their eyes from the reality and think of their dear "process" instead, which gives them the illusion of control.

That's why agile startups with a handful of good engineers can beat big, established corporations, whose workers spend 95 % of their energy on process and reporting.