Command and Control

As much as most of the respected management sources criticise industrial-era approach by “command and control” I start to like the environment more and more. It seems to attract developers, who have actually retired, just counting years to the official retirement age. Such developers are creating pleasurable work environment as a general mix of experience of life experience with experience in the field is indispensible. Many might spot that if everything is tightly controlled top-down, nothing really gets done and most of it would be true, however from more of a personal standpoint “command and control” places provide countless opportunities for sharpening the saw, learning many more new technolgoies, experimenting with stuff in name of quality, testing or improving the process. Without any criticism towards the management, one could risk saying that the less work to be done, the more actually happening and as the control tightens further, this seems generally to be true. I could probably even recommend any developer doing a stint at a corpo just to experience this. As long as you’re not expecting your ideas ever to materialise in production and you generally keep everything within the remit of your desktop, you should be absolutely fine. None of that need pushing your honesty as you should focus on automating the very work (dashboards, statistics, data patches or other type of digging into corporate data) you’re supposed to do. Corporations are all about developing software mostly for your own benefit and your own joy, all with a benefit or a regular paycheck coming in right on time each month.