Manish Jain is an Applied Organizational Theorist who has spent considerable time pondering over one question. Why do executives, managers and engineers, who are methodically trained Analytical Thinkers, successfully leverage their analytical abilities to solve complex problems and deliver highly scalable and performant software to make their customer's lives better, but fail to make their own lives better by solving problems and alleviating pains associated with a large-scale software development process they design for themselves? The situation is more paradoxical given that growing pain associated with large-scale software development processes exists despite the adoption of best tools, best practices, and best ways of working such as Agile, Scaled Agile, Large Scale Scrum, DevOps, Lean, and countless modern methodologies. Why is large-scale product and software development so difficult and painful to manage? Why do smart technologists who are complex analytical problem solvers fail to address the dysfunctions they experience in their own daily lives?
Manish believes that he has figured out that reason. It's not because of people's lack of analytical problem-solving abilities rather too much usage of analytical ways of solving problems. In other words, we are too smart for our own good, meaning we are hurting ourselves without being aware. To justify his point, Manish suggests that you open any book on modern software development methodologies and read their listed principles. For example, read principles of Scaled Agile (SaFE), Large Scale Scrum(Less), or for that reason, DevOps. All of them cite Systems Thinking as the key principle. The question is, why? The only plausible explanation is that there is some issue with our current form of thinking, which happens to be analytical. We now hope that you know why most transformation fails. Why people's struggle with large-scale software development is rampant despite best tools, best practices, best people, and best methodologies. It's because we are learning and implementing those methodologies with an Analytical Thinking Mindset instead of the prescribed Systems Thinking mindset.Manish believes that he has figured out that reason. It's not because of people's lack of analytical problem-solving abilities rather too much usage of analytical ways of solving problems. In other words, we are too smart for our own good, meaning we are hurting ourselves without being aware. To justify his point, Manish suggests that you open any book on modern software development methodologies and read their listed principles. For example, read principles of Scaled Agile (SaFE), Large Scale Scrum(Less), or for that reason, DevOps. All of them cite Systems Thinking as the key principle. The question is, why? The only plausible explanation is that there is some issue with our current form of thinking, which happens to be analytical. We now hope that you know why most transformation fails. Why people's struggle with large-scale software development is rampant despite best tools, best practices, best people, and best methodologies. It's because we are learning and implementing those methodologies with an Analytical Thinking Mindset instead of the prescribed Systems Thinking mindset.
Manish holds a Bachelors's degree in Economics, Mathematics, Political Science, and MBA from UC Davis. But what he takes the most pride in is being an autodidact with a focus on computer science, software engineering, social and systems sciences.
