I once worked at a company that specialized in R&D. Short projects, ad-hoc teams, etc. Kept things fast, interesting and ever changing. I consider that time

I once worked at a company that specialized in R&D. Short projects, ad-hoc teams, etc. Kept things fast, interesting and ever changing. I consider that time to be one of the best (and happiest) of my career. But then some of our projects turned into production systems, and the place started to take on a more "traditional" software shop feel with terms like SDLC and CMMI being thrown around. Then we got bought by a bigger company - that was the last straw for me. Oh well, was nice while it lasted :(