Re:Many software companies are a joke
by mschuster91 on Monday May 16, 2022 @06:22AM
(#31395316)
> but complaining about needing to do documentation, or basic project management
There's a difference between "writing documentation that fits the need at the moment" or "write fifty thousand pages of documentation no one will ever read, just to check a checkbox on some manager's checklist / compliance requirement". Or endless "sync" meetings that are effectively nothing more than filling the desire of managers to (micro-)manage.
With a decade of industry experience from freelancing over small agencies to big-corp/government jobs I've worked, I can say this: The core problem at the root of most big-co/government projects and associated disasters is that there are way too many levels of "deciders" and especially a fundamental lack of trust in people to do the right thing. When everyone is just in cover-your-ass mode and no one is willing to risk making a decision that is not backed by weeks worth of analytics and big data, shit will hit the fan real hard sooner or later.
The most successful projects are done by startups or in the big-co world where a significantly high-up person says "we're going to deliver a solution to the problem X" and everyone is focused on reaching that holistic (!) milestone, not on micro-optimizing their KPIs, OKRs or other bullshit. The key to success is trust, the focus on one shared goal and actually paying enough to hire decent seniors to lead.
There's a difference between "writing documentation that fits the need at the moment" or "write fifty thousand pages of documentation no one will ever read, just to check a checkbox on some manager's checklist / compliance requirement". Or endless "sync" meetings that are effectively nothing more than filling the desire of managers to (micro-)manage.
With a decade of industry experience from freelancing over small agencies to big-corp/government jobs I've worked, I can say this: The core problem at the root of most big-co/government projects and associated disasters is that there are way too many levels of "deciders" and especially a fundamental lack of trust in people to do the right thing. When everyone is just in cover-your-ass mode and no one is willing to risk making a decision that is not backed by weeks worth of analytics and big data, shit will hit the fan real hard sooner or later.
The most successful projects are done by startups or in the big-co world where a significantly high-up person says "we're going to deliver a solution to the problem X" and everyone is focused on reaching that holistic (!) milestone, not on micro-optimizing their KPIs, OKRs or other bullshit. The key to success is trust, the focus on one shared goal and actually paying enough to hire decent seniors to lead.