[cvoss]

Article argues that we don't see J-model software companies (or at least they aren't very good) because there's something inherent about software that demands innovation, green field work, blue sky ideas, etc., and that those things only happen (well) in an H-model company.

I disagree. So much of software is long lived or should be. We desperately need incremental refinement of already solid products and instead we have decay and rot because H-modelers make bad calls. (E.g. OSes.)

My team develops a product that is 15+ years old. As I read how J-models work, I kept thinking, "Yeah, we need that. That would help a lot. I'd love to work for decades on this product if we could do it thay way." Our product is mature and always in demand. But it always needs maintenance and it frequently needs significant improvement to keep pace with the changing environment around it. Bad H-model judgments have sent it in the wrong direction sometimes based on directives from on high, when, actually, the team itself holds so much knowledge and expertise that we can often self-organize in ways that maintain, refine, and improve this 15 year old system. We could benefit so much from a move toward proper J-model thinking.