Bits, Features, and Truth
There’s a meeting going on right now. It’s a cross-functional meeting, which means that not only are multiple departments in the organization represented, but multiple expertise types, attitudes, and agendas as well. The cross-functional nature of this meeting means a program manager is present and they are likely serving in their role as translator.
See, good program managers speak all the regional dialects of the company, so when engineering says, “It’s done,” they jump right in and translate: “Done pending function testing, production testing, and final documentation review,” so that product management doesn’t tell sales, “It’s done,” and they start selling something which actually isn’t done.
In this well-attended multi-lingual meeting, a decision is on the table and it’s a decision that’s happening in every single software company right this second. It’s not really a decision, it’s a negotiation, but it’s on the table and people are tense because this decision is under heavy scrutiny:
