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Following this thread now for I while, I need to give my few cents: 1. Management - I've worked in lots of german companies from all sizes. I'd say the bigger the company is, the more hierarchical is the structure. I think this is a natural thing to happen. But, saying "most German organizations are shaped like a pyramid" is not completely correct.
Every company has it's individual shape. And I can tell, I've worked in rather large companies following fairly modern approaches (sattelite-structures, flat-democratic structures, etc.).
The claim of "the pyramid" sounds like a biased conception to me, but I'd be interested in studies about german company structures (anyone?). 2. missing tools - this is just untrue. Of course email is still important, but we're using Git/Slack/Jira/Whatever-is-cool-right-now, in germany, too.
Also, there is nothing wrong with Excel or MS Project. 3. outdated infrastructure - TRUE!
We have a big problem with infrastructure, especially in rural areas (where rent is cheap and overall life quality quiet good). The goverment decided to invest in fibre-technology, though. Maybe a bit late.
LTE/Mobile is still lacking and more expensive than in other european countries.
If we don't improve this, it will be a big risk for our economy in the future. 4. lack of talent - now this is very interesting.
Personally, I think talent is passion compared with experience over time.
Our educational system is (not great, but...) good enough.
However, I've never seen a great programmer popping out of college/univeristy. The most "talented" folks, I met, often are in their late 30s, 40s and above.
They mostly understand business, programming and people-work better than younger collegues.
Yet, german companies are suffering from age-discrimination like in other nations, too.
For this point, I'd like to refer to Robert C. Martin, by saying we need more discipline in our craft.
Instead of hiring 10 graduates, better hire 3 veterans. Because the mess, unexperienced programmers leave behind, will make companies want to hire even more of them, producing even worse software, so managent gets an impression of having not enough people. (get my point)? |