I love the discussion about all this. For a bit of context, I kept the article focused on the technical because that is the primary audience of my website. There is a criticism that I focused too much on the technical side in the article. That's entirely possible.
My choice to focus on the technical is because my lessons basically boiled down to:
1. Don't focus on the technical (#1 YAGNI, #2 Ignore software upgrades, and #3 use the tools you know)
2. Deliver something valuable to the customers as fast as possible.
In other words, I tried to say "don't focus on the technical side."
I admit in the article that the technical focus of the article itself was emblematic of why the project failed.
> Up to this point, I’ve written about the technical failings of the project. This is an emblematic example of why the project failed. I didn’t help my customers and was too focused on the technology.
Perhaps I was too subtle on that point.
Thanks for all the feedback. I've enjoyed reading the discussion.