Late delivery, the most common problem in software projects
Programming is a craft, like carpentry, and carpenters run late too. The trap is the magic of possibilities: a beginner who has learned the tools and built one product believes he can now build anything, and says yes to the client. He is right about the tools and wrong about the time. The difference between a novice and an expert is how long the work takes and the quality it arrives at. In our region most projects end up rebuilt by someone else after the second month. The question to ask is not whether a developer can do the job, but how long it will take and how well, and past clients answer that better than the developer does.