Well. These are just anecdotal from one job in an agency which also sells websites for some bigger companies... and I hope this stuff is rather not standard...

Well. These are just anecdotal from one job in an agency which also sells websites for some bigger companies... and I hope this stuff is rather not standard... but if I had to guess it's something like: - bad project management from the client (they often don't care about technical quality or rather can't evaluate it) - bad project management from the web contractor (they often don't care about technical quality or rather can't evaluate it) - the web agency has too many projects due and needs to deliver asap - exhausted & mismanaged dev teams (+ freelancers) which are constantly working on short lived projects, which are a mess because nobody doesn't really care Also I am amazed over and over again how a lot of managers (or people) will lie straight to your (or the clients) face if they can thereby save their ass.