The futility of “I told you so” in software engineering teams

While this is common wisdom on software teams, and it’s good rookie advice, it’s also good to know if people are feeling the need to shout “I told you so!” on any kind of repeated basis. It’s not only a sign that there’s something wrong with the proclaimer; it’s a sign that there’s something wrong, period. Maybe the team isn’t listening to well-reasoned arguments, or maybe there isn’t any way to get good enough data to make a decisive argument ahead of time, and the team should listen to its individual members’ intuition more. In the absence of objective* data, intuition is actually quite valuable and it’s important not to discount it.

* objective is key, because if there’s too much data, you can find some that says anything you like.

If you feel like you're saying "I told you so" often, you should leave.

Either you're not in a position to have your opinions count, or you've given up fighting for them and are burning out.

(A third option is that you're deluded, and are forgetting about all the times where what you told people didn't come out true. Watch for that, and be more humble.)

> If your past warnings were ignored and you do not feel that there are any politics / biases / prejudices in active play, it is time to introspect, reflect, and ask: > “How will I make my case differently next time?”

Most of the time someone says "I told you so", and aren't listened to, they'd say that the people who didn't listen to their warnings didn't listen due to either politics or bias. Even in the case of politics or bias, though, "how will I make the case differently?" is still a valid question (it's just that the question is now also accompanied by "is this really the hill I want to die on?").

I find people that self describe as Engineering leaders disturbing

The idea that the person "needs to construct stronger arguments" seems to put the blame on the person with foresight when circumstances can vary a lot.

If their reasoning was presented initially and matches up with what was the cause of the problems, then yes, they did tell you so and you should probably take note. Otherwise you're letting yourself or other managers off the hook every time. The culture should support feedback and input from both directions.

If an engineer did try to warn but didn't communicate that clearly, then I would see that as an area where (if I were a manager) we could see a tangible benefit by helping this person improve their communication skills. Improving communication skills isn't something a person does in a vacuum but within an environment that facilitates constructive feedback.

Dismissing previous warnings by default using this reasoning seems contrary to a so-called "data-driven" culture, and a great way to build miscommunication into a culture.