Every team that adopts a "single source of truth" tool has the same fear: it'll just become the seventh source of truth.
The way out is to stop trying to replace the systems people are already happy with — and instead add a thin layer above them that makes their work legible to leadership without changing the way they work.
Three rules for the alignment layer
- Read more than you write. The fewer fields people have to fill in twice, the higher adoption goes.
- Roll up, don't dictate down. Status should aggregate from the tool of record, not be re-entered.
- Stay invisible to the doers. If the engineer never has to open the alignment tool, you've won.