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There's a tension here which I can't quite put my finger on, but perhaps it is: If everything is a people problem, why do we need engineers at all? And if the b

by tibbar 2y ago

There's a tension here which I can't quite put my finger on, but perhaps it is: If everything is a people problem, why do we need engineers at all? And if the business can't be run solely by MBAs and project managers, and we bring on engineers for that last part, is it really just a people problem they're solving?

gwbas1c 2y ago
A business that's all MBAs and no one who actually knows how to do the work has a serious people problem.
avmich 2y ago
> If everything is a people problem, why do we need engineers at all? Let's look at it as a bunch of people solving a problem which is too big for any one of them. Those people are different, they contribute different parts of the solutions - engineering, managerial - but they all have to cooperate to solve the problem, at least efficiently. If they don't, or don't do enough, for whatever reason, the solving suffers, possibly up to not happening.
francoisdevlin 2y ago
As a tech manager with twenty years experience, I can assure you, in fact, engineers are people. And they interact with those MBAs, project managers, etc. The really good product/project people understand this as well, and make a point of doing their very best to be effective when interacting with the engineering team. They know how expensive we are, and try to bring our our best. To the point of this article, the best product people were in fact respected by the tech team, and it made all the difference.
marcosdumay 2y ago
> why do we need engineers To design stuff. That's what engineers do (on the case of software, designing is also called "building" and "developing"). Engineers do not fix the problems of your organization. At least not while wearing an "engineer" hat. > MBAs and project managers Non-technical MBAs and project managers are patently unable to solve a lot of the organizational problems of engineering organizations. But well, usually yes, the MBAs are the ones tasked into solving them. I dunno why you included project managers.

by tibbar 2y ago

gwbas1c 2y ago

A business that's all MBAs and no one who actually knows how to do the work has a serious people problem.

avmich 2y ago

> If everything is a people problem, why do we need engineers at all? Let's look at it as a bunch of people solving a problem which is too big for any one of them. Those people are different, they contribute different parts of the solutions - engineering, managerial - but they all have to cooperate to solve the problem, at least efficiently. If they don't, or don't do enough, for whatever reason, the solving suffers, possibly up to not happening.

francoisdevlin 2y ago

As a tech manager with twenty years experience, I can assure you, in fact, engineers are people. And they interact with those MBAs, project managers, etc. The really good product/project people understand this as well, and make a point of doing their very best to be effective when interacting with the engineering team. They know how expensive we are, and try to bring our our best. To the point of this article, the best product people were in fact respected by the tech team, and it made all the difference.

marcosdumay 2y ago

> why do we need engineers To design stuff. That's what engineers do (on the case of software, designing is also called "building" and "developing"). Engineers do not fix the problems of your organization. At least not while wearing an "engineer" hat. > MBAs and project managers Non-technical MBAs and project managers are patently unable to solve a lot of the organizational problems of engineering organizations. But well, usually yes, the MBAs are the ones tasked into solving them. I dunno why you included project managers.