The Toyota Way emphasizes that managers cannot merely read and listen to reports. They need to walk the genba, the factory floor, and see firsthand what the state of things is.
With software, the genba is not the office. It is the codebase. Managers don't need to be making commits that get merged into production, but they should be constantly familiar with the codebase that their team is responsible for, and capable of playing with it and try out ideas. See the technical debt with their own eyes. Understand firsthand why their report says that making certain minor changes is such a difficult task.
With software, the genba is not the office. It is the codebase. Managers don't need to be making commits that get merged into production, but they should be constantly familiar with the codebase that their team is responsible for, and capable of playing with it and try out ideas. See the technical debt with their own eyes. Understand firsthand why their report says that making certain minor changes is such a difficult task.