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Nice point. And, as you noted, I might have missed the real point of TFA, but it was so generally written it was difficult to see the point of it (wasn't the p

Nice point. And, as you noted, I might have missed the real point of TFA, but it was so generally written it was difficult to see the point of it (wasn't the point kinda: listen to the customer ?). And I completely agree about the "MBA disease", but ... that without knowledge of the business you're [XYZing], you can't make valid decisions Agreed, but this is true of all disciplines (XYZ). How often have you seen random software or features because the product, dev, QA, whatever group didn't understand the business or were wrapped up in politics? The biggest difference between the "MBA disease" and the "computer science disease" was that we identified the "computer science disease" and proposed a number of cures (e.g. waterfall, agile, scrum, nom du jour). "Business" is less well-defined, so we're just discovering and looking to cure the "MBA disease". That said, we got too damn many MBAs...

Vivtek 15y ago
Well, but the CS disease may be suffered by individuals and - occasionally, you're right - groups or even the IT department as a whole. The MBA disease is currently suffered by top management of huge multinational conglomerates, because its vector is in fact the people within companies who allocate all the money. It's like the difference between the flu and AIDS - if the disease targets the immune system you're dead. Regarding discovering it, though, speak for yourself about the just-nowness. When the corporate raider became front magazine cover hero in the 80's, that's when it became endemic. Since then, America has been eating its seed corn. I was in high school and college at the time, so I didn't know what was going on, but looking back, it should have been obvious. And like I say, I figured it out in the early 90's. I've been self-employed since that job and never regretted it.

Vivtek 15y ago

Well, but the CS disease may be suffered by individuals and - occasionally, you're right - groups or even the IT department as a whole. The MBA disease is currently suffered by top management of huge multinational conglomerates, because its vector is in fact the people within companies who allocate all the money. It's like the difference between the flu and AIDS - if the disease targets the immune system you're dead. Regarding discovering it, though, speak for yourself about the just-nowness. When the corporate raider became front magazine cover hero in the 80's, that's when it became endemic. Since then, America has been eating its seed corn. I was in high school and college at the time, so I didn't know what was going on, but looking back, it should have been obvious. And like I say, I figured it out in the early 90's. I've been self-employed since that job and never regretted it.