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Scrum disempowers developers

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Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#121

Post by abritinthebay »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #36

Like any and every business theory, Scrum has one or two core ideas that are awesome, but could be explained adequately in a paragraph or two. This does not sell books and consulting, so it evolved into a field of its own. The fact that there is so much B.S. in Scrum doesn't mean that it has nothing of value to offer, though. Here's what I get out of it: 1. Sprints are a better way to organize than Waterfalls. I've e…

You’re absolutely right - and that’s the e tire core point of Scrum: to promote agile methodology (which can be summed up as you just did)

However the reason there is “bs” (by which I assume you mean the process/meetings/etc) is that most teams suck at being agile. Scrum provides a more rigid framework so that a team can develop agile skills and then, when ready, move beyond scrum.

Most people think Story Points or terminology like Standups comes from Scrum too - they don’t! They’re from XP.

Scrum is exceedingly simple and suffers from being over complicated and dismissed by those who don’t understand it,

The blog post above is no exception.

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#122

Post by vinceguidry »

mikekchar wrote: post #55
jacques_chester wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I've mostly noticed is that when people show up with cynicism or actual anger towards Agile-with-an-A, perhaps nine times in ten, Scrum was involved (edit: though this might be sample bias, as Scrum is by far the most popular methodology). I'm sure it's working really well for some folks. A large fraction of the magic of any agile system is the folks involved and their familiarity and experience with it. I work…

> If I had to pick the most destructive part of Scrum, it's the sprint commitment. I've organised many XP teams that regularly hit our sprint commitments virtually every time. The times when I've found it problematic to hit sprint commitments were due to the following: - Sprint was too small. 1 week sprints are awesome, but they are extremely difficult to hit. I run 2 week sprints if I can manage to get people to agr…

How do you organize acceptance criteria? Is it language that has to be added to every story?

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#123

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #105
matthewmacleod wrote: post #21

I find this article lacking, because it makes all of the same mistakes typical of these bandwagon anti-Scrum articles. Despite working in a a Scrum team, I recognise literally nothing of the problems that are described. Our product owner works closely with both commercial and development groups to build the backlog. Pressure to build good technical solutions is reasonably balanced with commercial requirements. The de…

No, it's the other way around: those arguing against SCRUM don't have to tell their reasons (bad experience suffices), but SCRUM proponents must come forward with logically sound and coherent arguments pro-SCRUM in the first place.

For something that prescribes how to do everything, like Scrum does (e.g. you need all these meetings, this person does X, this person does Y, teams have to be cross-functional, no specialists, etc.) I think it's more than fair that the burden of proof lies with the proponents of that methodology.

Another way of putting it is that there are many good ways of doing project management, as many good ways as their are unique (team, circumstance) pairs.

Most people have an intuitive understanding of why some very low-overhead, low-formalism, "just get stuff done and be reasonable" workflow has worked really well in some specific (team, circumstance) combo situation.

If you want them to override their experiences with how those ad hoc, customized management processes worked well, and instead believe that a company-wide, one-size-fits-all approach that removes tons of workflow autonomy that could just be left up to separate teams to customize for themselves, then you absolutely have to have extremely convincing answers to address widespread bad experiences.

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#124

Post by tannhaeuser »

struppi wrote: post #45

If you do Scrum like that, you're doing it wrong (I know, no true Sctosman [1], and I know, there are actually dark patterns [2]). I wrote a whole book about "Agile Anti-Patterns" [3]. Most of the book's content is about things that many companies get wrong when they start with agile or lean software development. Because it is very easy to get those things wrong. Yes, those problems are extremely common. Not only wit…

That sounds ridiculously similar to people hanging on to communism/socialism: "the principles are sound, it just hasn't been implemented as intended". Except, just like communism, Scrum has never and will never be implemented "as intended" because that's contrary to our collective evolutionary gifts, and against a developer's desire to find satisfaction in good craftsmanship. A project management methodology building on utopian altruistic ideals and delusions wrt people's motives is just propaganda.

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#125

Post by wpietri »

This is a good article, but I disagree that Scrum's major flaw is a lack of hierarchy on the development teams. I've worked on some great self-organizing teams, and they're more than equal to the product manager. They outnumber the PM, after all.

The problem only comes in an organizational culture of "whatever the boss says". In that context, teams rarely learn to self-organize. Instead, the previously existing control hierarchy stays in place. Before, developers built whatever spec landed on their desk. Now they build whatever is in JIRA. Developers in that world can't even conceive of pushing back.

It's my belief that if Scrum had had some strong counter-balance to that, like an Engineering Master, then it just wouldn't have been adopted. Scrum won out over the other Agile processes (of which there were several) not because it produced better results, but because it was the one most comfortable for medium- and large-company managers. It provided the feeling of transformation without actually changing anything important. They were doing waterfall before, which became untenable with the rise of the Internet. Now they do mini-waterfall, call it Agile, and imagine themselves kings of the world.

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#126

Post by cabalspecter »

wpietri wrote: post #91
Uberphallus wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This does not sell books and consulting, so it evolved into a field of its own. It's funny how it turned into UML

UML comes out of a different culture of development, that of the Rational software crew. They had their own much more heavyweight process than the Agile folks: RUP, or the Rational Unified Process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_Software#UML_and_RUP There was a little overlap; in particular, Martin Fowler wrote an intentionally thin book called "UML Distilled". But the UML world was generally heavy on both up…

Too bad people didn't bother reading the Unified Process book, which clearly specifies the use of iterative and incremental development and the creation of just enough UML diagrams to communicate and document a system design. It even argues that working software should be used to describe an architecture in the Elaboration phase rather than a 10000 words document. It can actually be considered as one of the first agile methodologies. RUP and other flavors of UP just added tools and guides aimed to facilitate the implementation of UP, but it was misunderstood that every template and section must be filled out instead of actually thinking what to use depending on the project. Unfortunately the whole thing was ultimately bastardized by the non-technical template zombies that thought software development is like building a skyscraper.

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#127

Post by Cakez0r »

mindcrime wrote: post #53
struppi wrote: post #45

If you do Scrum like that, you're doing it wrong (I know, no true Sctosman [1], and I know, there are actually dark patterns [2]). I wrote a whole book about "Agile Anti-Patterns" [3]. Most of the book's content is about things that many companies get wrong when they start with agile or lean software development. Because it is very easy to get those things wrong. Yes, those problems are extremely common. Not only wit…

And to really implement Scrum, you'd probably need to change more about the organization than the org was willing to change. Bingo. That is the key point to me. Scrum, and other agile-family methodologies, are great when fully implemented. But what usually happens is that the higher-ups refuse to relinquish a bit of control, and stick tightly to their traditional command-and-control approach, and the dev teams are fo…

Nail, meet head. I've worked in places where scrum has worked great. But most places I've worked at or heard about have exactly the problems you describe.

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#128

Post by PurpleRamen »

smackay wrote: post #12
acdha wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What’s that quote from Elon Musk - process is an excuse for large companies to keep mediocre talent? Isn’t he the same guy who’s been learning that more process is necessary to make cars safely and on-schedule? I’d be reluctant to draw any broad conclusion from one optimistic aphorism.

But the essential difference is that process applied to manufacturing is about repeatability, quality, reliability etc. where process in software is more about communication. Eventually, maybe, a software process will be more like a manufacturing one but the variation in technologies, techniques and general fashion make that hard - even in limited areas such as CRUD web apps. I think you'd get the same outcomes with…

Processes in software are also for quality, reliability and repeatability. Good communication is just one mean to support these goals.

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#129

Post by Apeliotes »

mrmondo wrote: post #27
xstartup wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he has a problem in finding smart people in sufficient quantity, so he has backtracked to the "process".

You pretty much too the words out of my mouth - I was talking with someone about this just yesterday. I suspect that when interfacing with 3rd parties that are over-burdened with inefficient processes it means that he/they have to stoop to their level and dumb down their production line to work with said party.

I'm curious why you would think this? Surely every other auto manufacturer deals with the same suppliers? I can't imagine Toyota would be overly pleased with inefficient suppliers

Re: Scrum disempowers developers

#130

Post by ataturk »

wpietri wrote: post #125

This is a good article, but I disagree that Scrum's major flaw is a lack of hierarchy on the development teams. I've worked on some great self-organizing teams, and they're more than equal to the product manager. They outnumber the PM, after all. The problem only comes in an organizational culture of "whatever the boss says". In that context, teams rarely learn to self-organize. Instead, the previously existing contr…

I don't know... I've come to just resent all of it. Scrum, JIRA (god, how I hate tickets), the whole works. It's a giant dumpster fire at this point. It was never good. Every place I have worked that did waterfall was a mess and every place I have worked that has done agile has been a mess one way or another.
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