How does the analogy apply to software?#
The path — specify, build, test, release, measure — can become farm-like almost everywhere, because it repeats. The product becomes farm-like only where it varies little. Most organisations can mechanise the path long before they can mechanise what they are building.
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Why does the distinction matter in practice?#
Because the two need different delegation settings. Repetitive, well-specified, cheaply reversible work can sit far out on the delegation boundary. Work that differs every time needs people close to it, and treating both the same produces either dangerous autonomy or pointless supervision.
Moving work from the construction site towards the farm is the job of an autonomy enabling team: not removing the people, but removing the reasons they had to be there.