Integration Is Communication

Kent Beck wrote a tweet recently that had me nodding my head:

I feel like this is a lesson one only learns while working for a large corporation. At this scope, there’s so much work to be done, and so many groups of people involved, that the most acute pain is always felt at the integration points.

The obvious solution is “better communication.” More meetings, more emails, more documentation, more complicated forms one group fills out to communicate its needs to the others. The cure seems worse than the disease.

What’s the real solution? I’m not sure there is one.