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The Agile Fluency Model

martinfowler.com

51–60 of 112 posts

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#51
The title for this HN item is misleading. The article was written by James Shore and Diana Larsen, and they should be credited for that. It is published on my site, because we felt that would help it gain more visibility. I find their model very helpful in understanding how teams take on agile thinking and practices.

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#52
post #17
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think we could draw a parallel between agile software development and the communist movement ?

Absolutely. Both claim to be about empowering the Workers but in fact disenfranchise them.

All roles are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#53
Development methodologies have been turned into weapons against the employees.

That's how the average manager sees it, plain and simple. Everything else is just fluff and cake decoration sprinkled on top.

It's a hip brand that justifies things that would otherwise be hard sells.

Want to drag people into daily meetings where they take turn in telling everyone what they did yesterday and what they are going to do today? ... "Agile! shiny ... daily standup" now it's acceptable.

Perverse incentives mean businesses devour and bastardise any given methodology into a leverage for themselves and a stick to beat others with.

Methodologies were partially meant to empower the employees but that didn't last long.

Consultants may ponder about nuances and details.

The businesses and managers who never see beyond the next quarter just see it as a socially acceptable brand to exert power.

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#55

The title for this HN item is misleading. The article was written by James Shore and Diana Larsen, and they should be credited for that. It is published on my site, because we felt that would help it gain more visibility. I find their model very helpful in understanding how teams take on agile thinking and practices.

I'm very sorry about that, I was referring to the "Martin Fowler" brand/website, not you as the person. Can't change it anymore...

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#56
post #53

Development methodologies have been turned into weapons against the employees. That's how the average manager sees it, plain and simple. Everything else is just fluff and cake decoration sprinkled on top. It's a hip brand that justifies things that would otherwise be hard sells. Want to drag people into daily meetings where they take turn in telling everyone what they did yesterday and what they are going to do today…

"Have been"? This is not a new phenomenon. "Culture" in various forms have for ages (long before you and I were born) been used as a tool to control mindset. See Engineering Culture by Gideon Kunda for more[1].

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Engineering-Culture-Commitment-High-T...

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#57
post #53

Development methodologies have been turned into weapons against the employees. That's how the average manager sees it, plain and simple. Everything else is just fluff and cake decoration sprinkled on top. It's a hip brand that justifies things that would otherwise be hard sells. Want to drag people into daily meetings where they take turn in telling everyone what they did yesterday and what they are going to do today…

You present a negative outlook that isn't necessarily the endgame of agile, but it's pertinent to frame it this way! Of course those are some very likely risks if the team doesn't claim its leverage and demand its stakeholders engage the development process responsibly, but that's the point of demos and signoffs.

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#58
post #34

The problem with Agile is that it's a thing that only works with adult (of any age) programmers that have enough experience to be let loose and prosper. If you're going to pour Agile over chain gang junior sweatshops you're just doing cargo cult Agile. I think it's important that somebody starts thinking about what the best methodology for mediocre product managers for managing mediocre programmers is - and I say thi…

Isn't this where agile frameworks like Scrum and Kanban come into the picture? They place some ground rules around "doing agile" for the immature teams to follow. As the team matures, they can drop or alter the rules as needed.

And I don't disagree that some teams might never be capable of doing agile in a productive manner. But, I wouldn't aspire to work on one of those teams, or for that team's employer.

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#59
post #5

The consultants have taken over "Agile" and turned it into a process-heavy set of practices. Over the course of a 2 week sprint I spend more than 8 scheduled hours in various meetings (grooming, planning, scrums,etc.) http://programming-motherfucker.com/

> The consultants have taken over "Agile"

Taken over? Nah, Agile is native to consultants: Many of the thought leaders behind Agile are consultants themselves.

Re: The Agile Fluency Model

#60

The title for this HN item is misleading. The article was written by James Shore and Diana Larsen, and they should be credited for that. It is published on my site, because we felt that would help it gain more visibility. I find their model very helpful in understanding how teams take on agile thinking and practices.

I'm very sorry about that, I was referring to the "Martin Fowler" brand/website, not you as the person. Can't change it anymore...

We've reverted the title to that of the article. Thanks!
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