I couldn't agree more. The second approach is definitely more likely to make the deadline. At the same time, it will often result in disgruntled people who just

I couldn't agree more. The second approach is definitely more likely to make the deadline. At the same time, it will often result in disgruntled people who just do the minimum possible to ship. The extra meetings and overhead result in less time for actual dev work, and people will be hesitant to make any improvement they deem would be nice to have, no matter how small, because of all the processes it has to go through.