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Comment by bsenftner | Hacker News Reader

My theory is any engineer led organization is doomed to fail because the STEM education does not include professional communications, and as a result any engineer led project and organization has communications issues that ultimately lead to failure. Quality communications is so critical in any collaborative, it is simply amazing an emphasis on communications is not a part of technology development - where "new" and "how" and "what" needs to be continually redefined. While a "project manager" is an individual specifically selected because they have quality, or at least better than the average engineer, communication skills. It is no wonder engineers and developers dislike project managers: they run communication circles around their developers, and the developers do not have the training or skills to compete, so they lose every debate, including those they should win on facts, but they can't convey their points, so they lose, and we lose.

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Engineers would win many more arguments if that was their full-time job. Who has the energy after completing a blitz to solve a highly technical problem by deadline to debate a PM who has spent months cooking up a product story?

My degree required a communications course, and a full year senior project course that included pitching, design documents, and demos. My understanding is plenty other universities require similar courses.

Furthermore, even if that were true, companies (especially ones like Google) look for project and product managers that have CS degrees or other STEM degrees.

Personally, my frustration with project/product managers often comes from (ironically) underspecified requirements and highly unrealistic deadlines. Neither of those I consider a failing of their education or skills, but a failing of the company's reward structures.

Those under specified requirements and unrealistic deadlines are both the outcome of poor communications. An adept communicator is able to identify and convey the critical importance of correctly defined requirements. Likewise, such a communicator addresses unrealistic deadlines and explains the reality to those that need such explainers why their unreality is impossible, and they thank the good communicator for their honest language rather than any form of negative reaction. Such is the power of quality communications. An unrealized super power that actually exists in our social civilization.

How do non-software engineering fields somehow achieve this?

There is an entire college of communications devoted to the power of persuasion via language, professional communications, and media. Software developers culturally ignore that entire school of thought, to our determent.

I agree, I’m just wondering why other STEM fields don’t seem to have this problem or at the same level. I’m guess it’s the hubris of being the hotshot new lucrative world-eating industry.

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