Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

This is a sample litmus test question in IT.... if someone cannot answer this decently, they deserved to be replaced by one of new team in ENGINE!

1. People supporting a SaaS app - Can you walk me through a logic of a script you developed and how it interacts with the SaaS API used by your customer?

2. Can you describe a technical solution you’ve built from scratch or significantly modified, including the architecture, coding languages used, and how it improved efficiency?

3. What’s the most complex technical challenge you’ve solved the past year that you have here at your work history at Workday? Walk me through your approach and thought process.

He is now gone. Lol
Now if Les keeps that model? Thats where we are in trouble

there was 80 scrummaster contractors who got let go in November 2024…. did anyone missed them? not at all… another example of waste IT has… they are good hard working people but many of their work is “paper pushing” like many of IT (IRM coordinators focused on SNOW checklists) and not really deliver results

Agile itself isn’t the issue. Other companies have successfully adopted agile, and it’s working well for them. Chevron, however, introduced additional roles to management with the goal of “finding spots” to save themselves . If Chevron abandons agile, it will simply replace it with the same hierarchical management structure that demands status updates and pushes for target dates. The only difference will be a new name, but the same management approach—asking for the same status and pushing for the same targets—will remain unchanged. When you have management making decisions to preserve themselves, they’ll make the same mistakes over and over.

Many years with both SAP and Salesforce.... they have TONS of custom code in those systems... they also have their own GIT repos.... if you are not using some sort of source control.... then what do u really do again?

Let's give that SHIELD guy that red stapler!

LOL at SHIELD guy pi-ping the tool. Must be the PO or PM who owns it.

I'm going to vote getting "the Bobs" in-house.... 15 minutes max of quick technical quiz.... with 60% of Chevron IT non - technical, these guys will only need 1-2 minutes to decide that "another Powerpointer" here.. next....

yeah... SaaS has tons of configuration files - Salesforce, SAP, etc.and many others.... and if you only work in pure SaaS.... no need to pay you $200k + Pension .... Chevron can have lowly engineer doing that easy job

I agree with the poster below regarding technical skills. But there are a lot of us doing technical development work in SAAS systems that aren’t in SHIELD or Azure Devops repositories like SAP or Salesforce, not to mention the fact that using git commits would just encourage people to game the system.

What this thread needs is "More Chat GPT" I tell ya.
I gotta feeva and the only prescription is more "CHAT GPT"!!!!

Chevron IT Engineering should be built on a strong foundation of technical expertise, with at least 95% of its workforce being capable of coding and designing software vs this SAFE agile cr-p. Without this, the efficiency of application support and change-driven projects will suffer, leading to sluggish decision-making, misaligned priorities, and a lack of real innovation. IT should not be a management-heavy environment where non-technical roles dilute the engineering culture—just as in a hospital, where 95% of staff, including leadership, are former doctors or nurses who deeply understand the field.

A simple yet effective way to assess technical capability is by examining contributions to SHIELD and GIT. If an individual has no track record of scripting (VBScript, Ansible) or coding in languages like Python, Java, or C#, they are not truly an engineer but rather a coordinator relying on others to execute the actual work. This is a recurring issue, particularly with senior Application Engineers who delegate tasks to Software Engineers while taking credit for technical contributions they don’t make themselves.

To maintain a high-performing IT organization, there should be a clear standard: No contributions in GIT, no technical footprint in SHIELD—no job. By enforcing this, Chevron IT can cultivate a workforce that is truly hands-on, engineering-driven, and capable of delivering real technological impact rather than operating as a layer of management disconnected from the technical work.

My green badge sm told me I was doing a bad job because I didn’t have my velocities and capacities and dependencies labeled

I don’t know what digital analysts are, but IT tried to bring back the business analysts and AG was so hung up on agile and how we got rid of those roles because everyone is supposed to do a bit of BA work in an agile team. The whole agile nonsense really destroyed any credibility that IT had (which was already low).

The business unit used to have their IT people they can count on. Now if you’re in a key BU like MCBU, you’ve got digital advisors from the business, IT program managers, digital analysts, and none of whom can do anything at all. I’m not sure what PMs actually do all day. If they left tomorrow, no one would care at all. No one is looking at the reports they generate except their BUDM, also another worthless role.

Here’s the take on all this, I think Wirth being a relatively new CEO, got invited to a lot of events with major tech power players and became enamored with the bells and whistles (like the monkey who puts his hand in a jar to get the shiny thing) and then he applied to implement/resolve 3 things with Chevron: data everything, remove bad managers and awful employees (hence the Chapter and Platform). Chevron is a huge company and unfortunately bad actors do get hired and promoted, so I figure they needed a way to remove them quickly and legally to get work done. But by doing so much and one time and putting such a convoluted process in place, he ki-led off dialogue and it’s been a circus since then. We have so many bad actors all over the place know in digital strategy positions and product line management positions and such. This is what it is now.

What is a digital analyst? What platform do they work on? I’ve heard of a data analyst, that’s not the same thing however right?

We have 4 digital analysts and nobody knows what they do except read action items and type minutes. We could pay one cheap contractor to do all their work. Or just use copilot

It’s related to the layoffs.
If you’re on the digital platforms, be looking for a job asap because if you have no actual knowledge of the areas that you’re working, you are pretty much dead man walking. All those agile roles are useless. MN wants results.

How did this BS unrelated post end up on the layoffs boards? Was it a mistake? If so, I apologize, on behalf of the OP.

I’ve only met only ONE PO who has experience in the field they’re assigning work direction, most of the other GA, PO and PLM are kept afloat by a few talented people around them. The key is simply do the story you’re assigned, where it gets tricky when you have a awful GA/PO who will assign some general story to get some kinda vague work done and it’s like finding a needle in the haystack and then blame everyone else for their sh-t stories and leadership.

If Chevron fired all Digital (titled anything; advisor, strategist and blah), all the product line managers and release train managers and such, no one would notice or care.

Absolutely correct about the PLM and PO having all the power for firing, hiring, work direction and role assignments, yet most of the ones I’ve met have no or little experience in the field they’re managing.

Rte doesn’t need to know the details as they’re just managing the epic/feature/story release and the recap.

The product line managers are lucky in that their bosses don’t know the details as those Gm are managing upwards and “building” relationships. No one will ever speak out against the po or plm or Rte because they’ve been given absolute authority to remove any one at any time so no one will rock the boat. So to recap we have this matrix model where managers don’t know the work and then po and plm who have been given too much authority to remove someone so no one will ever speak out and the business won’t rock the boat because of the digital imperative driven but short sighted wirth.

@e0+1jkq3jms8 Are you reading my thoughts right now! 2 years to barely learn their job then hop to the next like the perpetual horizon employees they are. Lots of experience without the foundation needed to lead.

The ELT approved this nonsense. Why? None of them have ever had to do work using any of their convoluted systems. Their entire career has been moving from one job to the next without learning or experiencing anything. Did you read the email from MN? He's clueless. They create a big mess and the rest of us pay the price.

We have a product line manager and rte who bubble up every 3 months, tells some feel good story, gives a pi-s poor recap of the epics and features and can’t get the details right and then disappears for 3 months. It’s the oddest side show I’ve ever seen and the fact they have a job is baffling.

I’m panicked I’m going to lose my RTE. who is gonna tell me how to use the bathroom? And put on my shoes.

It has to involve ketamine. Every nonsensical thing in the world now involves ketamine.

Look back at the folks who were behind the 2020 reorg. Then you will know that the DEI folks that got the management to sign off on this rubbish

I agree completely. Chevron has not only always had too many levels in the management pyramid but strangely also to many parallel management lines focus on controlling the path from work to success. Then came Agile which seems to double those worried about work effort and obligating all clear paths between worker bee efforts and long view results. Most stupid misguided management idea ever applied to large scale long term capital investment that could ever be convinced. No wonder we a last in out per group. To Sr managers in this company I say “Do Better!”