> I wonder how we can break the cycle.

Make management consulting illegal.

All developers know all the wisdom. Everyone who had a manager knows the problems in any process.

The only ones who seem to not know or see or understand the problems are various layers of management. This is weird because ostensibly that is their one job.

I can understand how a junior manager who only worked one year in the industry can get fooled into believing in the rigid processes with pointless artifacts.

But if you worked building software for five or even two or three years, I cannot possibly imagine how one goes about their day managing a software project in this fantasy land.

By “manager” I mean all the chickens that decide how the pigs work, and all the chicken in pigs clothing. I do not mean all kinds of management.