Lost Garden: Software Development’s Evolution towards Product Design
Great article. I couldn’t say that I disagree with him on anything except for the bit about offices vs. open spaces.
I will *always* opt for an office over a cubicle or otherwise open working space. Always. If you have an office space, you can still get communal working environments by having conference rooms, a general communal area where people can congregate to work in groups, and at a minimum, you could simply leave your office door open. Other things make teamwork very doable even with an office-centric space. For example, corporate IM (think Jabber).
The opposite isn’t true; if everyone is in an open carrel or in a cubicle, that’s how they’re stuck. Their personal space is constantly invaded, their attention divided and interrupted. Sure, they can work together, but it makes it very difficult to ever hunker down and concentrate on something that doesn’t involve other people.
I think some companies merely like to push the concept of open spaces and cubicles as being better because it’s cheaper, not because they really believe it’s better.