Arne Vajh?j <arne@vajhoej.dk> wrote:
And I don't think IT is that much different from other
businesses regarding whether management has a past
doing what the company actually do.
I very much doubt that the managers in car companies can assemble
a car, managers in airlines can fly a plan, managers in oil companies
can drill etc..
Well, no, but they know the _business_ of assembling a car, flying a
plane, drilling a well and so on.
A (good) manager at a car plant will know about the product line,
cost and maintenance times on robots and production equipment, part
storage and order chains, quality standards for the product, health
and safety standards for the employees and so on.
While there are exceptions, of course, in my experience there is a
surprising lack of knowledge about the _business_ of software _both_
among managers in IT companies _and_ among many developers. As an
industry it seems rather infantile and unprofessional, stubbornly
unable to look inwards at its own workings.