Software: To eat and get eaten…

It has been declared:

Software is eating the world!

- Marc Andreessen

 

But lately it seems like:

Management is eating software development!

(Or at least it's sucking out all the innovation and creativity which used to be a major part in software development)

 

Some public indications of this trend are:

• Marissa Mayer introducing QPR (Quarterly Performance Review) Ranking System at Yahoo
• Google effectively killing its "20 Percent Time", which allowed employees to work on side projects.
• RedHat middle management putting performance pressure on one of its most prominent open-source community leaders. 
• Corporations swallowing and suffocating Agile.

Is this a bad thing or is it just a sign that the software industry is growing up? Does this boil down to the old question whether software development is craftsmanship or manufacturing?

Quotes of the Week: Meetings

Meetings are toxic: They usually convey an abysmally small amount of information per minute.

- Rework: Change the way you work forever

What exactly is wrong with meetings and managers (or M&Ms, as we call them)? Well there is nothing intrinsically wrong with them. What's wrong is how often they're applied in office situations.

- Remote: Office not Required

If you are in a room with five people for an hour, it's a five-hour meeting.

- Remote: Office not Required

Meetings procreate: One meeting leads to another meeting leads to another...

- Rework: Change the way you work forever

By rationing in-person meetings, their stature is elevated to that of a rare treat.

- Remote: Office not Required

We lead people not machines, we embrace spending more time with our team than in meetings.

- The Team Leader Manifesto

Last but not least: Never forget to run the awesome Meeting-Ticker…