I've also been thinking in a kitchen analogy to get management onboard to freeing up the tools used by engineers. There is a push to unify and breakdown silos, which is great, but in the eyes of management it also means using the same IDEs, the same OS, the same AIs etc.
My kitchen analogy is that the tools the engineers use are like the chefs kitchen knives, as long as the dish (code quality) is the same, engineers should be supported in choosing the tools that serve them best and the end results presented goes through a final pass (code review).
Back to the article, I disagree engineers should make the menu, it's not there job to know what the customer wants or to set prices. The engineers cook, the menu would be the maitre'd with the restaurant owner that decides (Yes, in a restaurant the head chef makes the menu and here the analogy breaks down.)
Wasn't Agile supposed to bring the customer closer to the developers?
The menu is set, the diner complains about the price or the choice of side dishes, the chef iterates.
I don't see a lot of customer feedback in any of these PO loops, I'm witnessing it first-hand in my company. There's nothing Agile in this process anymore.
My kitchen analogy is that the tools the engineers use are like the chefs kitchen knives, as long as the dish (code quality) is the same, engineers should be supported in choosing the tools that serve them best and the end results presented goes through a final pass (code review).
Back to the article, I disagree engineers should make the menu, it's not there job to know what the customer wants or to set prices. The engineers cook, the menu would be the maitre'd with the restaurant owner that decides (Yes, in a restaurant the head chef makes the menu and here the analogy breaks down.)