Blowhard Jamboree - A Management Anti Pattern

Blowhard Jamboree primarily arises due to the inappropriate decisions made by managers and decision-makers. Within popular media and private publications, there are many controversial reports that criticize specific technologies.

Technology decisions are often influenced by the suggestions of industry experts. However, it is important to note that many of these experts are misinformed and hold biased viewpoints. The information they report is often second-hand, and substantiating their conclusions with hands-on research and experience is rare.

Developers end up spending a significant amount of time, in addition to their technical responsibilities, addressing concerns raised by managers and decision-makers based on such reports.

To address this problem, every organization should have in-house experts for each key technology. These experts can discern between facts, misinformation, and opinions presented in popular media and other reports.

In cases where an organization lacks in-house experts, they can assign an individual to specialize in specific technologies. This person can acquire expertise through reading, training courses, participating in standards activities, and conducting hands-on experiments, such as prototyping.

Email lists often contribute to the dissemination of misinformation. Therefore, it is advisable to refrain from forwarding press releases to such lists. Press releases are essentially propaganda, selectively circulating information that benefits a particular organization. Instead, guiding an in-house expert to extract the factual essence of important announcements can help resolve these problems.