> In the 20 years I've worked in software. I've never even seen a shop that works this way. From 20 person teams to 10,000 employee companies. Maybe I've been lucky. but to me it reads as a straw man. Something to punch against that doesn't really exist

30 years ago it was the norm. It really is true that the industry (standard) has shifted a lot in that time.

But I work at a place like this right now. I was hired by the new CTO to help them change this, having spent the previous 20 years actively avoiding places just like this.

Project-based planning by a roomful of not-technical people: Funding, scope, design, shape of team, deadlines, tech stacks, vendors etc. all "locked in" before any engineer is even approached, let alone asked for input.

I cannot overstate how uncanny it feels to be working here - like I have actually time travelled back to the 90s.