Maybe it's because of the relative youth of the profession of software development that we seem to be constantly looking to other, more established, professions for analogies as guides to how we should organize and manage our work. If taken too far, I think this type of comparison is detrimental such as the numerous analogies often made to the building trade - e.g."building software", and "software architects". There may be a few similarities, but overall the work is so different that adopting terms and practices from construction often leads to misunderstanding and frustration. What about a restaurant kitchen as an analogy for a software shop? Is there anything we could learn? I worked in a large restaurant as a waiter in college and had the opportunity to see how a traditional restaurant kitchen is structured. It is very hierarchical with distinct and well bounded roles. At the bottom of the ladder are kitchen assistants. These are minimally skill...
Inspired by the ideas of W. Edward Demming, Taiichi Ohno, Tom DeMarco & Carol S. Dweck