Ignorant & Arrogant
I had heard about passing on the responsibility in the IT industry but have experienced this just recently. Work in the IT industry has been so modularized that it has reached a point where it might adversely affect the company.
Consider a condition where the project is maintained by a bunch of programmers who have not developed it. Such a project is divided into modules and the training is given to those who would be maintaining the project. Such a group will have knowledge of only their modules atleast in the initial stages of maintenance(when the defects are more ;-)). In such cases, this shirking of responsibility comes into picture. It has also so happened that when there is a defect in the system, it is assigned to each module before someone who has an overview of the entire system looks into the issue. This passing on of responsibility turns out into ego clashes when the ones who are doing the same are at the managerial level. There have been reported incidents where one there have been ego clashes between the head of different modules of the system and then they try to subtly put defects into the other system. Now such responsibility passing is the outcome of ignorance and arrogance combined. First, you are ignorant about the system as a whole and you are arrogant enough that you walk away with it.
Initially I tried to convince people that instead of passing on the buck wouldn't solve the problem. It might put the problem in the wrong perspective and into the wrong person's hand. But I found that not so easy. Now I am living on with such problems. Yeah, life is not a bed of roses...
Consider a condition where the project is maintained by a bunch of programmers who have not developed it. Such a project is divided into modules and the training is given to those who would be maintaining the project. Such a group will have knowledge of only their modules atleast in the initial stages of maintenance(when the defects are more ;-)). In such cases, this shirking of responsibility comes into picture. It has also so happened that when there is a defect in the system, it is assigned to each module before someone who has an overview of the entire system looks into the issue. This passing on of responsibility turns out into ego clashes when the ones who are doing the same are at the managerial level. There have been reported incidents where one there have been ego clashes between the head of different modules of the system and then they try to subtly put defects into the other system. Now such responsibility passing is the outcome of ignorance and arrogance combined. First, you are ignorant about the system as a whole and you are arrogant enough that you walk away with it.
Initially I tried to convince people that instead of passing on the buck wouldn't solve the problem. It might put the problem in the wrong perspective and into the wrong person's hand. But I found that not so easy. Now I am living on with such problems. Yeah, life is not a bed of roses...
