I just got out of a meeting where I was gobsmacked at the insistence by some architects that no development could be done unless the specific IP addresses of the machines in the system were set in a design document.
Think about that.
No design or development could be done unless the specific machines were known, despite the interchangability of any machine.
IP addresses are standardized, so the only thing needed to be known is the number of machines.
As I said, gobsmacked.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Muzzling diversity
I've got a new corporate master now, and one of the big "perks" is working in an open office plan.
There are plenty of blog posts, articles, studies, etc that show such offices are crap for software development.
However, I realized something this week. They also serve to minimize dissent in the company.
If you are surrounded by people who can watch your every move, you are likely to self-censor your speech, because you have to get along with the cow-orkers every day, so setting yourself up as someone who disagrees with your colleagues is career-limiting behavior.
If you had an office or a halfway decent cubicle (6-ft partitions, minimum) you could have soft conversations about topics that your neighbors did not agree with.
Open offices lead to groupthink. Just say no
There are plenty of blog posts, articles, studies, etc that show such offices are crap for software development.
However, I realized something this week. They also serve to minimize dissent in the company.
If you are surrounded by people who can watch your every move, you are likely to self-censor your speech, because you have to get along with the cow-orkers every day, so setting yourself up as someone who disagrees with your colleagues is career-limiting behavior.
If you had an office or a halfway decent cubicle (6-ft partitions, minimum) you could have soft conversations about topics that your neighbors did not agree with.
Open offices lead to groupthink. Just say no
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)