"Command and Control probably worked great in the toothpaste factory where Charlie Bucket’s father screwed the little caps on tubes."
I thought that it is totally obvious that the more intellectual and complex the task is, the less the hierarchical 'command and control' approach works. I think this is told in the first one hour in any course about management.
I once stated it here but state it again: the older I grow the less useful I find the posts of the great bloggers (Joel, pg, etc...). Their posts are usually good feel-good posts for us developers, but in their posts they overabstract and oversimplify everything (overabstraction can be also called 'architecture astronautism'), when what really matters are pretty much in the details (or at least cannot be communicated in such simple blog posts), and depend on hundreds of parameters, and I am sure they bacame successful because they have been taking care of the details in their everyday actions.
It's not obvious at all. The great mass of people believe earnestly that money or a big leader will fix all problems.
Case in point: The current trend to use standardized test scores to give teachers an incentive to make students get better grades.
Case in point: AIG gives out tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to people writing derivatives to counter mortgage bond risk, because these derivatives make the company money.
Most developers aren't lucky enough to work at software oriented companies. Their management is unlikely to consider development to be creative work and instead focus only on costs, schedules and the classic death march management style. Many freelance job boards suffer from a race to the bottom. This is an enormously serious problem in our industry.
I thought that it is totally obvious that the more intellectual and complex the task is, the less the hierarchical 'command and control' approach works. I think this is told in the first one hour in any course about management.
I once stated it here but state it again: the older I grow the less useful I find the posts of the great bloggers (Joel, pg, etc...). Their posts are usually good feel-good posts for us developers, but in their posts they overabstract and oversimplify everything (overabstraction can be also called 'architecture astronautism'), when what really matters are pretty much in the details (or at least cannot be communicated in such simple blog posts), and depend on hundreds of parameters, and I am sure they bacame successful because they have been taking care of the details in their everyday actions.