Why does it always have to be a step by step process?

Here is an observation that is making me more and more angry. Why is it that so many people in larger organizations who work somewhere in software development expect that everything needs to be a step by step process?

I see members of development teams talk for hours over how they want to move cards on a kanban like board. Which role does what part of the work. When do pairs have to switch. It is almost as they need to create a huge bureaucracy that governs every little detail of the activities in their open space team room.

So why do they do that? They are in an environment that is physically open and allows for every easy collaboration. Isn’t it normal for humans to simply start talking to each other and figure out things together in any order? At least children would certainly do it without much thought.

Do they act the same in their private life? Have they been raised by parents who used step by step processes during their upbringing? I very much doubt that. Life is usually full of uncertainties and surprises.

Maybe it is that they think that software development is engineering and therefore everything needs to be exact, controlled, verified, etc.?

Maybe they think that following a prescriptive process makes them look more professional?

Maybe it is that they fear to make mistakes and be punished for making them. So they like a prescriptive process that allows them to show clearly they have just following the rules and hence should not be punished. The process as a scapegoat?

Whatever it is Software Development is definitely not the same thing as engineering. At least not as non engineers imagine how engineering actually works. I am not an engineer but I pretty much expect that good engineers do know how to deal with uncertainty. Why would they build prototypes, mockups, run simulations and all that before building the real thing?

Maybe it is simply lack of experience and a general immaturity of the people involved that leads to this desperate holding on to prescriptive processes. It is easier to follow step y step instructions than to understand abstract objectives and adjust while doing something.

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