> Jira doesn't just reflect, it drives convoluted unhelpful bureaucracy. I though so too, but now I no longer believe that's the case. This is because of two r

> Jira doesn't just reflect, it drives convoluted unhelpful bureaucracy. I though so too, but now I no longer believe that's the case. This is because of two reasons: one questions the statement itself - and the other one questions whether the statement correctly identifies the organizational issue. Firstly, almost every tool I ever used for project organization has grown to similar degree of complexity. All _software_ employed was strongly incentivized to implement new mechanisms of automation and regulation - thus right now I would struggle to name a non-defunct and non-single-user tool that doesn't have the issue. And certainly no tool that that I would call "established" - an arbitrary designation, to be sure, but that largely reflects that the complexity almost _defines_ establishment for a project management tool. Secondly, because I think the issue isn't, truly, the _bureaucracy_. Right now I believe it's the _technocracy_. It's the belief that every process has to be codified into software, and enforced in a manner that would make exceptions impossible without a pull request. This leads to - increase in complexity (because corner cases that would be easily solved with a quick email exchange now require weird workarounds - and if they are too common, actual change to the software) - reduction in real organizational flexibility (any special case is now discouraged on a technical level). Worst part is, it's very hard to sell a shift away from this. Technocratic adherence to software-enforced processes became nearly synonymous to "accountability." In itself that's frustrating to me - I believe this serves to paint organizational failures as forces of nature, effectively reducing accountability. But, so far, I have failed to effectively communicate it to most people - with exception of the very few who, themselves, have a considerable interest in social dynamics, one that goes beyond the professional interest expected of a manager. And to those, those are generally truisms - I'm under no impression I'm particularly original here. --- Aaaanyway, I went back to liking Jira - because, under all the cruft, there's still (or at least there still was) the basic bug tracker software that's almost like Bugzilla, but slightly less painful. And I like bug trackers, as long as they're used to track bugs - not manage projects. Projects are managed by people, and these days I believe that the reason all this software, as complex as it is, keeps failing to accurately communicate the project state, is because you would need the software to be a person.