Paraphrasing Jerry Weinberg:
Organisations that produce software for internal consumption have little competition, so they simply stagnate. Whether or not their stagnation matters depends on what their organisation defines as 'quality'. If the organisation gets the value it needs, and doesn't know any better, the stagnation continues. Once the organisation becomes dissatisfied, however, a crisis begins.What causes an organisation to recognise that the status quo isn't actually good enough? Does it have to be an external stimulus, someone on the outside looking in, or perhaps someone new to the organisation?
What then pushes an organisation to seek improvement and take action?
Paraphrasing Jerry some more:
Organisations lock on to a particular level of quality, and change is prevented by the conservative nature of culture, which is primarily manifested in their satisfaction with their current level of quality and the invisibility of their own culture.Is this blindness? Ignorance? A lack of ambition? Or submission?
2 Comments
It's just the pickle effect. I prefer to think that what people are doing is "good enough" but I can show them something that is significantly better and I can convince them that I can help them get there.
Hi Jason
I agree. My post has helped me vent some frustration without being verbose about it. I've been demonstrating how things can be done more effectively by actually doing things more effectively. This approach prompted my previous post BAKER'S DOZEN: Statements from an Agile subculture . In this case it's taken an external stimulus to show that things can be improved.
Simon.