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I think success doesn't come because of these bad decisions and red tape, but despite them. I have the impression that in many areas, a certain "critical mass"

I think success doesn't come because of these bad decisions and red tape, but despite them. I have the impression that in many areas, a certain "critical mass" makes a big difference, e.g. more market presence may generate a lot more sales even if the product is mediocre. I still think that doing things the right way and getting rid of those famous inefficiencies could leverage success even further. With regards to software I think that's the difference between large companies with a known engineering culture (like Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft) as opposed to those known to be a bit more red-tapey (like IBM, Adobe). But of course, "doing things the right way" is terribly hard to quantify, and so is "how much success would be possible". If numbers at the end of the year are already positive, good luck trying to convince C-level to introduce fundamental changes to existing processes.

org3432 7y ago
> But of course, "doing things the right way" is terribly hard to quantify I don’t think it is hard to quantify actually, shorter build times are better than longer ones, branch merges that take seconds are better than the ones that take up to a day, spending people’s time on higher level thought processes vs squandering their time going through pages of manual steps that could just be a script, etc. It’s just a lack of awareness of what the company is doing that turns them into molasses, and puts projects at risk of being canceled. The companies are still successful overall somehow, but individual employees learn and grow at a much slower pace than they’re capable of.
- NikolaNovak 7y ago
  Note that not one item you quantified even remotely relates to any business outcome.
- blauditore 7y ago
  Those are not quantifications, just binary comparisons. You could also argue that new Ferraris are better than second-hand VW Polos, but should the company really use them as company cars? The question is whether the benefits are worth the additional cost, and that's where quantification (actual numbers) helps.

org3432 7y ago

> But of course, "doing things the right way" is terribly hard to quantify I don’t think it is hard to quantify actually, shorter build times are better than longer ones, branch merges that take seconds are better than the ones that take up to a day, spending people’s time on higher level thought processes vs squandering their time going through pages of manual steps that could just be a script, etc. It’s just a lack of awareness of what the company is doing that turns them into molasses, and puts projects at risk of being canceled. The companies are still successful overall somehow, but individual employees learn and grow at a much slower pace than they’re capable of.

NikolaNovak 7y ago
Note that not one item you quantified even remotely relates to any business outcome.
blauditore 7y ago
Those are not quantifications, just binary comparisons. You could also argue that new Ferraris are better than second-hand VW Polos, but should the company really use them as company cars? The question is whether the benefits are worth the additional cost, and that's where quantification (actual numbers) helps.