Well I can only speak from my experience, but I have been way deep in projects.
1. Just in the last year I have migrated from 89 child domains down to one parent domain.
2. Then migrate to a brand new Exchange 2003 5 node cluster (3 active 2 passive). 8000 accounts and not one email lost whewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3. Deploying LANDesk Management and Security Suites to 25000 nodes.
4. Scripting the move and creation of over 75,000 accounts, and automating the moving and editing account as kids move from school to school.
5. Now trying to figure out a way to automate the user creation of new staff accounts from what the HR Department enters into the AS400.
Oh yeah and all of this with the worry that my job and the rest of my team is going to be cut because our district lost 34 millions in budget cuts.
The fluffy midgets in my head tell me to format everything and hope the end user knows how to backup their data.