Why I Keep Bringing Up Cargo Cults (And Why You Should Care)

People keep asking me why I reference "cargo cults" when talking about software development practices. Some think it's just a clever metaphor I picked up from some management book. Others assume I'm being needlessly obscure or pretentious. But here's the thing: cargo cult thinking isn't just a cute analogy for bad process adoption—it's the exact mechanism that's destroying your software team today.

During World War II, Allied forces built temporary airbases on remote Pacific islands. The indigenous populations watched planes land and deliver incredible wealth: food, medicine, manufactured goods, weapons. Then the war ended, the military left, and the cargo stopped coming.

So what did some communities do? They built replica airstrips out of bamboo and palm fronds. They carved wooden radios and wore fake uniforms. They performed elaborate ceremonies mimicking what they'd seen the soldiers do. They built control towers and waved wooden paddles at empty skies.

They copied every visible detail of the cargo delivery system except the one thing that actually mattered: the planes were coming from factories and supply chains thousands of miles away, not because of the local rituals.

This is exactly what your software team does with agile practices. You see successful teams using certain ceremonies and artifacts, so you copy the visible behaviors without understanding the underlying system that makes them work.

You hold daily stand-ups because you heard agile teams do that, but you turn them into status reports for managers instead of coordination sessions for developers. You estimate story points because someone said that's how you measure velocity, but you use the numbers to make commitments instead of planning work. You hold retrospectives because that's what the Scrum guide says, but you discuss the same problems every two weeks without changing anything.

It's all bamboo radios and wooden paddles.

Here's what cargo cult thinkers miss: successful practices exist to solve specific problems in specific contexts. When you copy the practice without understanding the problem it solves or the context that makes it work, you get ritual without results.

Real retrospectives happen when teams are empowered to change things and committed to improving. The ceremony is just a forcing function to reflect systematically.

Cargo cult retrospectives happen because the Scrum guide says you should have them. Your team goes through the motions of identifying problems you can't or won't fix, then schedules the next ceremony.

Real daily stand-ups happen when team members need to coordinate closely and can actually help each other with blockers.

Cargo cult stand-ups happen because someone read that agile teams "sync daily." People recite status updates to a scrum master who writes them down and does nothing with the information.

Real sprint planning happens when teams benefit from batch-processing decisions and need to communicate commitments to stakeholders.

Cargo cult sprint planning happens because that's what you do every two weeks. Your team spends hours debating estimates for work you don't fully understand to hit velocity targets that don't predict anything useful.

The appeal is obvious: copying successful behaviors feels like a shortcut to success. It's easier to follow a prescribed process than to figure out what actually works for your situation. It gives you something to point to when things go wrong: "We followed the framework correctly."

But cargo cult thinking is seductive precisely because it looks so reasonable. You're not stupid—you're following detailed instructions from certified experts. You're measuring the right metrics and holding the right meetings. You're doing everything the books tell you to do.

The problem is that you're optimizing for process compliance instead of outcomes. You're building bamboo airstrips instead of understanding supply chains.

If you suspect your team might be engaged in cargo cult behavior, ask these questions:

"What problem does this practice actually solve?" If your answer is "because the framework says so" or "because successful teams do it," you're probably in cargo cult territory.

"How would we know if this practice stopped being useful?" If you can't imagine circumstances where you'd stop doing it, it's probably ritual, not tool.

"What would happen if we skipped this ceremony/artifact/process for a month?" If your answer is "chaos" but you can't explain why, you might be more dependent on ritual than results.

"Are we measuring compliance with the process or effectiveness of the outcomes?" If your metrics are about whether you're following the process correctly rather than whether the process is helping you succeed, that's a red flag.

The saddest part isn't that cargo cult practices waste time—it's that they prevent your team from developing the judgment to know what actually works. When you're focused on following the prescribed process correctly, you stop paying attention to whether the process is helping you ship better software.

Your team gets so invested in ceremonies that you can't imagine working without them. You become dependent on external structure instead of developing internal discipline. You measure your professionalism by how religiously you follow practices, not by how effectively you solve problems.

This is why mediocre teams can follow Scrum perfectly while high-performing teams often ignore half the practices. The mediocre teams are building bamboo airstrips. The high-performing teams understand what makes the cargo actually arrive.

Before adopting any process, clearly articulate what problem it's supposed to solve and how you'll know if it's working.

Most successful practices depend on specific organizational cultures, team structures, or technical constraints. Don't copy the practice without understanding the context.

Measure whether practices are helping you ship better software faster, not whether you're following them correctly.

If a practice isn't solving the problem it's supposed to solve, change it or drop it. Don't keep doing it because it's part of the framework.

The goal is to become the kind of team that ships great software naturally, not to become good at following processes.

I reference cargo cults because it's the most accurate metaphor for what I see in your software organization. Teams that are incredibly sophisticated about technology but surprisingly naive about process adoption. Smart people doing reasonable-seeming things that don't actually help them succeed.

The cargo cult metaphor matters because it highlights the difference between mimicking success and understanding success. It explains why copying "best practices" often produces mediocre results. It shows how ritual can substitute for results if you're not careful.

Most importantly, it suggests the solution: stop building bamboo airstrips and start understanding supply chains. Stop copying what successful teams do and start understanding why they do it.

The planes aren't coming because of your ceremonies. They're coming because you built something people actually want to use.

Teams that focus more on getting certified in frameworks than on improving their delivery capabilities.

Measuring story points, velocity, and burndown charts without connecting them to business outcomes or user value.

Believing that the right project management tool or dashboard will solve fundamental communication and prioritization problems.

Adding more ceremonies and check-ins when the real problem is unclear requirements or poor decision-making authority.

Copying what works at Google or Netflix without considering whether your organization has the same culture, resources, or constraints.

Here's a simple test: if you removed a practice for a month, would you miss the results it produces, or would you just miss the comfort of the routine?

If it's just the routine, you might be building bamboo airstrips.

If your team genuinely missed the coordination, the clarity, or the improved decision-making, then you've found a practice that's actually working.

The goal isn't to eliminate all structure. It's to eliminate structure that doesn't serve a purpose beyond making people feel like they're following best practices.

Instead of copying what successful teams do, understand what makes them successful:

These are the supply chains that actually deliver value. Everything else is just ceremony.

Most of your process problems aren't process problems. They're clarity problems, authority problems, or incentive problems dressed up as process problems.

No amount of ceremony will fix your unclear strategy. No framework will substitute for good judgment. No ritual will replace the hard work of understanding what your users actually need.

Stop building bamboo airstrips. Start building supply chains.

The cargo you want isn't going to appear just because you've perfected the ceremony.