there needs to be a culture of using assertions in order to produce the desired results. IMO, proper "culture" is a significant part of almost all aspects of

there needs to be a culture of using assertions in order to produce the desired results. IMO, proper "culture" is a significant part of almost all aspects of project management and no matter what, without it, the teams will never reach their optimum potentials, unless some highly motivated dev takes upon their shoulders to implement these base tenets for everyone else. I'm not saying it's always easy to implement or it guarantees success, but that the lack of it always rears it's ugly head at some point in the development process.