Ask HN: How would you rebuild software PM in non-software Big Co? And would you?
by mstaoru | 2025-10-16 21:24:16+00:00
After 20+ years in software SMEs and startups across China and SEA, I bit the bullet and moved to the EU to join a manufacturing BigCo as a developer. So far, I don't regret it, but the ways of working - and especially managing projects - are very different from what I'm used to.

It's a very old, very large (15,000+ employees), and very traditional European company. We're a small department of <50 people, acting as the "glue" to drive "digital transformation" and "innovation". Work is hybrid, one day a week in the office. Our customers are internal, so there's no startup-style pressure to "find PMF before running out of money".

Technically, we're a Microsoft shop: Azure for infra, Azure DevOps for code, Teams for everything else. About 90% of communication is calls and 10% one-to-one text, with the occasional email. Projects run in small teams of 3–7 people, each with a weekly all-hands progress call. Task breakdown happens in Teams Planner (which is clunky), but many small tasks float outside it. There are always unclear, half-abandoned items hanging around, plus some initiatives that "need to be done" but aren't tracked anywhere. And since it's Europe and half the team is always on vacation or somewhere else, things often get disrupted and people shuffle around to fill the gaps.

Outside the weekly calls, there's little communication. Nobody really uses Teams chats (and they're one-to-one anyway). There's a Wiki, but it's mostly internal manuals. Teams Channels act more like a wiki too - rarely does anyone post there, mostly just announcements. "Customer" communication happens in the weekly calls or by email. Often someone will have a private call, make a decision, and inform the rest at the next weekly. There's minimal information exchange, discussion, or debate. And since teams are small, there's almost no post-project documentation.

Sometimes it feels like Europeans prefer it this way, everyone quietly works from 9 to 5. No Slack, no chatter. Projects move slowly, but they do move. Finding info can be tricky, but usually possible, ironically, by calling someone directly. That's also the default advice when I ask how to find something: "Just throw a call". The result is that popular devs' calendars are packed for weeks, and they have to block calendar "focus time" just to work.

From a classical SDLC perspective, almost nothing really works in Teams Planner:

- as a developer, I need to see "what to work on now" at a glance,

- as a project manager, "where should I interfere",

- as a people manager, "is everything on track" and "how's the workload distributed",

- developers need dependencies to see what's blocking them and how to prioritize,

- tasks need structured discussion with proper notifications,

- ideally, there'd be timelines and velocity tracking - but I'd be happy if the basics worked first.

So most weekly calls turn into "progress pings" going through tasks one by one and updating statuses. It's a slow cycle, and tasks often aren't atomic enough to be motivating.

When confronted, my teammates and bosses mostly shrug it off as "the European way" and turn it into a joke. They seem content with the status quo. But I feel like software project management is a partially solved problem - there are great methodologies and proven practices. It's not about the tool; it's about feedback loops, knowledge sharing, and transparency.

I just wonder what I can actually do to improve things - or if it's all just tilting at windmills or jumping Chesterton's fences.