I've worked in both the public and private sector, albeit not in the USA. The simplest and biggest difference between public and private sector organisations i

I've worked in both the public and private sector, albeit not in the USA. The simplest and biggest difference between public and private sector organisations is their motive: Private sector makes money. Public sector avoids being front page of the news. The behavior of each organisation often maps directly to these motives (albeit also, sometimes, perversely). Secondary to that you have the fact that startups (and other private-sector organisations) fail and disappear all the time. Public-sector organisation's are enduring. If your defense force screws up and waste 100 billion dollars, there will still be a defense force the next day. This explains differing priorities around enduring, consistent activity and focus where in the private sector you might see full-blown pivots. I like some of the stuff in the article's table but some of it is presented as a bit more immutable than is the case in reality. For example, fixed requirements on government projects versus agile/testing/story/feedback based delivery? Not true as a rule, lots of that kind of thing happening in the public sector. But fair as a broad generalization.