If it were only premature optimization, it wouldn't be that bad. But it tends to lead to actively counterproductive optimization. Teams get incentivized to do t

If it were only premature optimization, it wouldn't be that bad. But it tends to lead to actively counterproductive optimization. Teams get incentivized to do things that increase their KPIs even when what they're doing delivers negative value. For example, I've definitely seen this happen on Agile teams where management makes KPIs based on velocity or ticket flow: Suddenly, lots and lots and lots of waste and technical debt are generated due to implementing unnecessary things. Because unquestioningly implementing tickets as fast as you can increases velocity, while spending time to stop and talk about whether or not something is a good idea, or can be solved in a better way, decreases it.