Ask HN: The Alignment Tax

I am having conversations with engineering leaders where they have expressed concerns that it's not only the code but a lot of other things around code:

1. Alignment between engineering teams and other stakeholders which causes the delay in finalising the requirements 2. Scope changing mid sprint, which was not accounted during planning, hence pushing deadlines 3. Engineers who have the most context of system X, is on leave or have left the company, hence decisions are delayed 4. Senior engineer changing the approved design mid sprint because of some flaws in approved design 5. Identified dependencies on other teams who have their hands tied up with other urgent tasks .... & so on

Curious what this looks like at your company. What's the most expensive coordination failure your team has experienced? How much did it cost the company?