I remember listening to a talk by Martin Fowler (although it could have been Kent Beck) recently where he mentions the Facebook poster that says “Nothing at Facebook is somebody else’s problem.” It’s posted all around the company. He tells an anecdote about the Facebook mobile app and how the entire company uses the beta app so as to find all of the bugs before it goes to the masses. If one was ever to say (and occasionally a newbie does) “this beta is painful to use… I am going to go download the legit release from the AppStore” then the FB culture shines through. “No, you most certainly will not. You will use the beta like everyone else, so that our customers see as few bugs as possible. If you are frustrated by a bug, then fix it.”

nafisep

Too often within an organization there is a tendency to lay the blame for the problem at the feet of others. This tendency can fester and begin to seep into the culture. Rather than being one team with one goal the organization becomes snipping factions.