The thing is that a strict hierarchy is enforceable. A shadow hierarchy is one that can be circumvented if needed. If the organization encourages lower level de

The thing is that a strict hierarchy is enforceable. A shadow hierarchy is one that can be circumvented if needed. If the organization encourages lower level devs to "skip" up hierarchy levels if needed then they do. If a bad manager doesn't like it, they can take it up with the dev but in that case the dev hasn't really done anything wrong at all. It's largely an issue of company culture.