Re:The shittiest project I ever worked on (2013)
by Spooky23 on Friday May 24, 2019 @12:50PM
(#20003322)
The Dilbert perspective is a shallow one.
End of the day, a big company or government agency is too big for any human to internalize. It's a machine that pumps out process, but the downside of consistent process that change is more difficult.
When I worked at an agency that supported social services, some guy was bitching and complaining about how everyone who wasn't him was stupid, the agency was awful, etc. One of the more respected directors walked by and heard this. She popped in and said something like "There are x million people who depend on us to feed their children. And y million people who expect us to do so in a responsible and equitable way. We've never missed a payment, ever, because of this team."
Another example is the military, which is probably the dumbest possible bureaucratic institution ever devised. Yet is capable of executing the mission with ruthless efficiency, and can survive in the face the adversity and loss that few organizations can.
Smaller organizations are always better at reacting to change, because there are fewer stakeholders. But, they suck at many things, including consistent delivery, paying things on time, and organizational resiliency. Software makes them better, but software is its own form of bureaucracy with its own set of problems.
End of the day, a big company or government agency is too big for any human to internalize. It's a machine that pumps out process, but the downside of consistent process that change is more difficult.
When I worked at an agency that supported social services, some guy was bitching and complaining about how everyone who wasn't him was stupid, the agency was awful, etc. One of the more respected directors walked by and heard this. She popped in and said something like "There are x million people who depend on us to feed their children. And y million people who expect us to do so in a responsible and equitable way. We've never missed a payment, ever, because of this team."
Another example is the military, which is probably the dumbest possible bureaucratic institution ever devised. Yet is capable of executing the mission with ruthless efficiency, and can survive in the face the adversity and loss that few organizations can.
Smaller organizations are always better at reacting to change, because there are fewer stakeholders. But, they suck at many things, including consistent delivery, paying things on time, and organizational resiliency. Software makes them better, but software is its own form of bureaucracy with its own set of problems.