The Power of “Yes, If”: Iterating on Our RFC Process – Squarespace / Engineering

Re:The Power of “Yes, If”: Iterating on Our RFC Process – Sq... by JohnBooty on Sunday February 26, 2023 @02:50PM (#34948716)

    I also think it’s ok for a monarchy as opposed to 
    democracy ruling what gets approved, assuming merit 
    based is not an option.

I completely agree. What I object to is the charade!

    In general merits (rationality?) can bubble up if 
    it’s framed in correct way for upper levels

Theoretically, yes, but it's trivially easy to fool upper levels with one-sided technical opinions. Choose the name of any technology or tech-related practice at random, pay me $20, and I'll write you a one-sided RFC about why our imaginary company should adopt it. I'll make it sound really good. Your boss will love it and if they don't, I promise their boss will.

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Re:The Power of “Yes, If”: Iterating on Our RFC Process – Sq... by Hermitian909 on Sunday February 26, 2023 @04:15PM (#34949532)

> Choose the name of any technology or tech-related practice at random, pay me $20, and I'll write you a one-sided RFC about why our imaginary company should adopt it. I'll make it sound really good. Your boss will love it and if they don't, I promise their boss will.

Ultimately, business folks must always trust someone with technical expertise, trust is a necessary component of the system. Competent organizations ensure that someone technical has the relevant executive's ear, there are lots of ways to achieve this and it should be able to catch your one-sided RFC if you're proposing anything important.

At the end of the day though, there's no process-based solution for an organization riddled with incompetence. Business must make judgment calls and if your company is staffed with people who consistently make bad calls process will not save you.

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