Pros
As a mature software company, management understands what it takes to build complex systems. In our group, we worked on an interesting product with a team having lots of industry experience and a smart, motivated group of developers. It was fun testing the product at scale and at high levels of concurrency. The team and the company are all on the same page here. Good stuff. Family oriented culture. Our group, here in Middleton, MA, is a diverse mix of people with different software and Retail industry backgrounds. Management willing to make some big bets on new technology.
Cons
As is typical, I suppose, when a big company acquires a smaller one, upper management (including technological) from the parent has a "we know best" attitude. It took years for some folks to finally understand the nature and benefits of the product they were (now) selling. This "lack of listening" wasted millions of $$ and many developer-years of effort. Too bad, really. I mean, these guys are smart and had meaningful improvements to make in the product. It's just they didn't have the full picture. Which is ok. Unless you willfully stop yourself from seeing what is right in front of you... Management unwilling to pull the plug on failed experiments. Kept pouring good money after bad on those big technology bets. Never heard of "fail fast", I guess. I dare say, this lesson has been learned ... :-) The real downside to the big bets is that it has a real impact on people. You spend years of your working life on a project. You really want it to go somewhere. Upper management does not seem sensitive to this issue. Fewer opportunities to move to other products or teams from a remote office.
