I have to disagree here. Much waste is created by founder developers precisely because they can code, but they are not necessarily creating value ( I'm just as guilty ). Good managers / the business, call it whatever you will figure out the priorities, the desires of the stakeholders, help prioritize and more. Any producer (not just a developer) left to their own devices builds what they want to build, and that's not necessarily valuable to the customers or the business. So I agree with your second part, but not the first.