5 ms·

Management consulting has got to be the pinnacle of corporate bullshit...some favorites of mine are "synergies, deliverables, alignment, collaboration, circle b

Management consulting has got to be the pinnacle of corporate bullshit...some favorites of mine are "synergies, deliverables, alignment, collaboration, circle back" Also this is fun: http://www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html http://www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html

ucaetano 9y ago
It only seems that way for those who don't understand it: - Synergy: savings due to economies of scale when joining organizations or due to vertical or horizontal integration - Deliverables: whatever product you agreed to deliver at the end of a project - Alignment: getting a bunch of higher ups to agree on something - Collaboration: duh - Circle back: when you're trying to get a lot of the higher ups to agree (sadly, through individual meetings), and one of them has big concerns, you have to relay that to the other higher-ups Programmer phrasing all sounds like bs to someone who doesn't know it. "Let's do our daily scrum standup and get the scrum master and the product owner to agree on the architecture for the data storage module".
- virgilp 9y ago
  He's right though. The typical meaning of "bullshit" is "usage of jargon to exclude from the discussion those who aren't skilled in said jargon, and to make things look more complicated than they are to the outside observer". Many (not all) of those speaking the jargon when it's inappropriate do so knowingly, but there is indeed a significant percent of people who are so used to the jargon that they don't realize when it's inappropriate.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- sbov 9y ago
  "Scrum master", "daily scrum standup", and "product owner" aren't programmer phrasings, those are mangement phrasings in the field of software. There's plenty of other actual programmer phrases you could have put here, but it's somewhat telling to me that your sentence of programmer phrases actually has more management phrases.
  - ucaetano 9y ago
    "Somewhat telling" I see what you did there, nice ad hominem. But don't worry, proper Computer Engineer here, with a capital E. But the example holds, despite your ad hominem.
    - sbov 9y ago
      It is somewhat telling in that management phrases being passed as programming phrases shows how widespread the problem is. Not that you are a manager. At least, that is what I assume you mean by calling it an ad hominem. I probably could have worded it better.
      - ucaetano 9y ago
        Even manager doesn't mean much. There are managers (manage people) and manager (managed a business, process, product, etc). "Management" is manager (business). An engineering manager isn't management, is just a people manager. Engineering phrases made it to business, and business phrases made it to engineering, that is normal. Berating a profession because you don't understand their lingo is pointless. And the issue isn't you accusing me of being a manager, but implying that that is bad in some way.

ucaetano 9y ago

It only seems that way for those who don't understand it: - Synergy: savings due to economies of scale when joining organizations or due to vertical or horizontal integration - Deliverables: whatever product you agreed to deliver at the end of a project - Alignment: getting a bunch of higher ups to agree on something - Collaboration: duh - Circle back: when you're trying to get a lot of the higher ups to agree (sadly, through individual meetings), and one of them has big concerns, you have to relay that to the other higher-ups Programmer phrasing all sounds like bs to someone who doesn't know it. "Let's do our daily scrum standup and get the scrum master and the product owner to agree on the architecture for the data storage module".

virgilp 9y ago
He's right though. The typical meaning of "bullshit" is "usage of jargon to exclude from the discussion those who aren't skilled in said jargon, and to make things look more complicated than they are to the outside observer". Many (not all) of those speaking the jargon when it's inappropriate do so knowingly, but there is indeed a significant percent of people who are so used to the jargon that they don't realize when it's inappropriate.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
sbov 9y ago
"Scrum master", "daily scrum standup", and "product owner" aren't programmer phrasings, those are mangement phrasings in the field of software. There's plenty of other actual programmer phrases you could have put here, but it's somewhat telling to me that your sentence of programmer phrases actually has more management phrases.
- ucaetano 9y ago
  "Somewhat telling" I see what you did there, nice ad hominem. But don't worry, proper Computer Engineer here, with a capital E. But the example holds, despite your ad hominem.
  - sbov 9y ago
    It is somewhat telling in that management phrases being passed as programming phrases shows how widespread the problem is. Not that you are a manager. At least, that is what I assume you mean by calling it an ad hominem. I probably could have worded it better.
    - ucaetano 9y ago
      Even manager doesn't mean much. There are managers (manage people) and manager (managed a business, process, product, etc). "Management" is manager (business). An engineering manager isn't management, is just a people manager. Engineering phrases made it to business, and business phrases made it to engineering, that is normal. Berating a profession because you don't understand their lingo is pointless. And the issue isn't you accusing me of being a manager, but implying that that is bad in some way.