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OKRs seem to be the reinvention of Taylorism for software: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management ; with all that implies about management relations. This is rather like trying to do Freudianism in the 21st century. We've moved on. There are better ways. Naive Taylorism tends to degenerate into Stakhanovism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Stakhanov

More people should learn from Deming instead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming




OKRs are simply an extension of the fact that companies and departments need some sort of 3-6 month roadmap. That is to ensure cross-department and external communication can be done somewhat smoothly. Waterfall used to do this inherently. Now we've got OKRs and SAFe.


The same can be said cynically: Companies are inherently not agile, any push towards fast and iterative decision making will generate a counter-force towards quarterly plans under a new name.

SAFe is one form this counter-force can take, characterized as using a lot of complicated verbiage which makes it an easy sell for consultants.

I'm not saying this is wrong. Maybe quarterly plans on a fundamental level is what companies in our market economy is. Perhaps we shouldn't be agile on a company level. But let's at least be clear about what the strategy is.


Can you expand what you mean by "degenerating into Stakhanovism"? I read your Wikipedia article, and I also read this one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement

I have a vague understanding of what the movement was, but I'm unsure how you are relating it back here.

Are the degenerated attributes related to the "puffery" and "theatre".


The productivity targets are always increasing, but real productivity obviously can't. That creates a pressure to meet the goals through fraud.

Stakhanovite is the most benign fraud (pooling productivity). There was a Microsoft engineer that outsourced his job to several engineers in India. I bet he seemed very productive.

There are less benign frauds. Boeing and their suppliers let quality slip. Wells Fargo met account opening goals by opening accounts without asking the customer.


Huh. The USSR really celebrated its John Henry.


I had never heard of Deming, thanks.

I think, unfortunately, the pendulum in American corporate politics is swinging away from Deming, at the moment. Growth through making good and reliable products is getting difficult to sustain, which leads to the capitalist/financial lens to be applied to problems. The results are predictable: outsourcing, and "slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force", and generally a lack of leadership or vision for the product. Better for short-term growth to be worse but cheaper.




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