Category: roles

Specialization is Good

April 7, 2008 by JurgenAppelo

I think specialization is good, and cross-functional teams are not. Here's why...

Suppose you are the publisher of a magazine about cooking. It's a glossy magazine, with recipes, restaurant reviews, and lots of pictures of expensive cutlery and celebrities tasting trendy oysters. The magazine is released every month and you have a huge list of recipes, restaurants and celebrities waiting to make their appearance in one of the upcoming editions. Getting a new edition out the door is always a stressful experience. The celebrities never commit to any culinairy photo shoot. The chefs always complain about the way their food is described. And some of the recipes are so bad, you wouldn't even want to cook them for your neighbor's dog. But still, despite the bruised egos, and the meat clevers flying around your head, a new edition is published on the same day of each month.