First and foremost, it’s structures and decision making. The Exec Board and CEO are unwilling to let go of the least bit of control. Even after Agile development methods and Scrum had been introduced to resolve some of the severe project management issues NI had at the time, decisions were still made top-down (i.e., by the CEO and CTO). With their hands tied, product owners had no chance to steer their boat. This is frustrating not only for the product owner but also for the team. After noticing there was no instant gratification to be expected from Agile methods (because they were blocked by fixed deadlines and unexpected paradigm changes by the top management), the CTO decided to try a new approach called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). From what I heard, it doesn’t work too well.
Second, there was and is no proper communication. There is no vision, no mission other than stupid marketing slogans communicated to the employees. Even the department heads did not have a clear idea of where the train was heading, and what the long-term plans were. With no vision I could relate to, it was incredibly difficult for me to lead a team of individuals who had no clue what the big picture was. When reporting to my line manager, I noticed that bad news (e.g., deadlines that could not be met because the team was way understaffed) were filtered or interpreted in a way that would hide the actual problems.
Third, some of the directors and managers are not qualified to fill their position, and their main focus is on hiding this from their supervisor. As someone who had to manage a team under the most adverse conditions, it was hard to trust a person who did not understand my struggle nor support me in any way because he (or she) was busy overplaying his (or her) incompetence.
I could go on, but you probably get the idea.
