> top-down organisational pressure created by technically incompetent strategic management
Do most people work in this kind of environment? At my company our management couldn't care less what technologies we use. They want to see reasonable cost and solid uptime, and they ask engineering to deliver that.
Imagine a new CTO or middle manager coming in, with a small ego, and a big need to prove himself, and initiating a make-work project.
What defense mechanisms does your firm have against this? Unless your team leads are golf buddies with the C-suite, it is unlikely that their opinions are going to be taken seriously.
That's the thing. The two are indistinguishable, unless you give people with strong technical skills veto power on projects. If you don't work in such an environment, the only reason you haven't ran into a dangerous, idiot manager, is luck.
For some reason, in most firms, the c-suite isn't super keen on delegating that power.
Do most people work in this kind of environment? At my company our management couldn't care less what technologies we use. They want to see reasonable cost and solid uptime, and they ask engineering to deliver that.