Lost Art of Asking Questions - The Broken Build Problem.

Assume a large software team and a developer commits a piece of code which breaks the build inadvertently, build failure is notices by several developers on team however nobody takes action or raises the issue on shared communication channels.

Each developer assumes that others either do not see this build failure as significant issue or they believe that someone else will address it. This results in no one takes responsibility thinking

• I might be stepping on someone elses toes
• Complaining over something trivial
• Pointing out the obvious

It can result in significant loss of productivity cascading into delays in testing, missing deadlines, downstream projects relying on this build also failing

Sounds familiar ?

This is called pluralistic ignorance.

Why does this happen?

Humans are biased towards social conformity Fear of repercussions Misinterpreting non-verbal communication

It can have significant impacts in all walks of life.

What are some cases you are reminded of about pluralistic ignorance ?