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Exactly. Supporting these legacy management models should be deprecated. Legacy is all about managing people. The superior approach is re-focusing on managing t

Exactly. Supporting these legacy management models should be deprecated. Legacy is all about managing people. The superior approach is re-focusing on managing the flow of value. Layers get eliminated when that happens effectively, regardless of matrix org models or whatever else. I've consulted for 7 F250s now, and I can tell you that grossly about half their management (and leadership) wouldn't be needed if they went to a more efficient delivery system. It's not uncommon for F250 leadership decisions to be driven by the human foibles of ego, politics, finger-pointing, anxiety, stress, at best mis-directed, at worst fraudulent incentives. If lower level knowledge jobs can be eliminated by AI, it's just a matter of time before stockholders start demanding the same impact on management.

pfannkuchen 3y ago
I think if anything the role of a developer will become more manager-like. In the past, human workers executed processes designed by management. Today, computers execute processes designed by software engineers. In essence, software engineers today fill the role of yesterday's management, and the worker of yesterday is the computer of today. If software creation becomes sufficiently more automated, then the worker role of the software engineer today will disappear. We will shift automation further up the organizational pyramid. The role of the manager, e.g. deciding what to do and where to allocate resources, will still exist, just that instead of directing the software engineer worker they will direct the AI. The people most suited to that work are probably software engineers today. Whether this destroys the industry employment-wise depends on whether the new, shorter pyramid grows to fill a space at least as large as the old, taller pyramid. I don't really see why it wouldn't, since there seems to be much more demand for software today than there is supply, but it's hard to tell where things will land.

pfannkuchen 3y ago

I think if anything the role of a developer will become more manager-like. In the past, human workers executed processes designed by management. Today, computers execute processes designed by software engineers. In essence, software engineers today fill the role of yesterday's management, and the worker of yesterday is the computer of today. If software creation becomes sufficiently more automated, then the worker role of the software engineer today will disappear. We will shift automation further up the organizational pyramid. The role of the manager, e.g. deciding what to do and where to allocate resources, will still exist, just that instead of directing the software engineer worker they will direct the AI. The people most suited to that work are probably software engineers today. Whether this destroys the industry employment-wise depends on whether the new, shorter pyramid grows to fill a space at least as large as the old, taller pyramid. I don't really see why it wouldn't, since there seems to be much more demand for software today than there is supply, but it's hard to tell where things will land.