Process kills developer passion

The sad thing is that he's right. I see it every day.

I work in a process-heavy shop in a process heavy industry and more and more, our developers are getting sick of it. But at the same time, our bug counts are dropping and our schedule accuracy is improving.

It would be an easy decision if all the process didn't accomplish anything, but the data shows that it does. The difficult part is isolating which parts of the various processes are contributing the most, and scaling back the parts that don't. Unfortunately, if your management doesn't realize how irritated the developers are with all the data gathering and paperwork necessary to track the process, these drawbacks remain hidden until your best people start to leave in disgust.

Of course, you can ask the question if passion should even be relevant in software dev. and what its relationship is to product quality. A fantastically intuitive UI requires one type of personality and a "Can Never Fail" aircraft braking controller requires a different type. Should they use the same type of process?

no, what kills developer's passion is not having a say in what/how processes are implemented/evolved. The other thing that kills developer's passion is being tangled into a web of improvisation, contradictions and general confusion because the processes were forgotten.

The TV-series The Wire nailed this pretty well. In each season, members Baltimore's police department, school system, government are looking for ways to "juke the stats". Highly recommended as an analogy for process heavy software companies.