One of my favorite sessions at Foo Camp was run by Scott Berkun, author of Myths of Innovation (which is what his Foo Camp talk was about). On his blog, he’s composed a short, hysterical (and spot-on) glossary of real-world software development methodologies. Take “Asshole Driven Development:”
Asshole Driven Development (ADD) – Any team where the biggest jerk makes all the big decisions. All wisdom, logic or process goes out the window when Mr. Asshole is in the room, doing whatever idiotic, selfish thing he thinks is best. There may be rules and processes, but Mr. A breaks them and people follow anyway.
Or, what’s found in most corporate structures, regardless of what they do:
Cover Your Ass Engineering (CYAE) – The driving force behind most individual efforts is to make sure than when the shit hits the fan, they are not to blame.
If you want to see a video clip of Scott’s “Myths of Innovation” talk (not from Foo Camp), here ya go.
