Kill It with Fire

Kill It with Fire

Manage Aging Computer Systems (and Future Proof Modern Ones)

Marianne Bellotti

The reorg is the matching misused tool of the full rewrite. As the software engineer gravitates toward throwing everything out and starting over to project confidence and certainty, so too does the software engineers’ manager gravitate toward the reorg to fix all manner of institutional ills. And like a full rewrite, sometimes this is the appropriate strategy, but it is not nearly the right strategy as often as it is used. Reorgs are incredibly disruptive. They are demoralizing. They send the message to rank and file engineers that something is wrong—they built the wrong thing or the product they built doesn’t work or the company is struggling. It increases workplace anxiety and decreases productivity. The fact that reorgs almost always end up with a few odd people out who are subsequently let go exacerbates the issue.
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