akshatpradhan

Imagine a committee commissioned to approve plans for a Nuclear Power Plant. But the committee spends all their time discussing the color of the bike shed that they want built nearby.

In your case, their focus on separate VMs for QA/Production, systemd deployments, templating system for a few strings, and an ORM for a few SQL queries, especially for a project with a limited user base (10 people) really exemplifies Bike-shedding.

They’re emphasizing minor, arguably unnecessary details rather than the core functionality or purpose of the project [2]. This usually occurs because these trivial aspects are easier to understand and discuss, especially for junior devs, which leads to increased involvement on minor details while the more meaningful parts of a project (which might be more challenging to address), are overlooked or given less attention.

IMO, a good leader knows how to strike a balance between the “Right Way” and avoiding the pitfalls of “Bike-shedding”.