Friday, July 08, 2011

What would the Sistine Chapel look like if painted today, by an IT department

The artist and the software developer share many things in common. Both deal in pure thought, and abstract ideas. Both try to make them real. Both attempt to constrain complexity, and abstract away the unimportant to the thought.

While the artist attempts to evoke an emotion, or explain the world, the software developer tries to allow another human being to get something done. If looked at from the point of view of accomplishment evoking emotion, maybe the two aren't that different. I could argue that this is a vast gulf between the two as well.

Modern software developers have managers whose theories are historically rooted in the very real worlds of assembly lines, and military necessities. As far from the amorphous world of thought as you can get. Deadlines, measurements, distances, performance, all can be easily measured in reality. We have the tools and they work.

Modern project management has it's roots in ship building, and construction. Fields with firm roots in physics. You can only move the much mass this fast, and this far. It only takes so long to do a weld so big. Everything can be measured, because everything follows the immutable laws of physics.

Which leads us to the question: What would the Sistine Chapel look like if Michelangelo was managed by an MBA, and the whole project overseen by a PMO?