[datavirtue]

Code is useless without engineers. When the flight begins no one is going to do anything. Everyone checks out and spends their time fluffing their wings.

At GE the engineers know that engines don't fly without them (designs and specs are useless without engineers) so if they are in a position to do so they hold information close to their chest--tons of info are not in the design. They are very much dependent on a core group of engineers for each system. Just like any tech system, things are going sideways constantly for various reasons and they have to respond very quickly to customers and regulators. That response requires the tacit knowledge they hold in their head or under their desk. Not to mention the pet unicorn spaghetti code they develop to analyze sensor data which is crucial to projecting failure across fleets when one-offs are encountered.

Middle management has it's own game they play...it's wink and knod all the way down the chain...if they like you.