Guerilla Usability Test: Yelp by Gary Yu.
Proof that usability testing doesn’t have to be overly complex or long.
Useful insights from five (5) users and a low-tech approach to analysis.
Like you, I have known organizations to spend more than a year on web design/re-design issues and demur on doing even this degree of user testing.
Lack of time, resources, expertise (they got that one right but not on the user testing issue), were the most common excuses.
There was a greatly reduced chance the executives would hear any disagreement with their design choices but I don’t consider that to be a goal in interface design.