Agile Manifesto states: The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
But from what my experience, written word one-on-one has many advantages. It is easy to look up what was said. Another difference is that written word is persistent, meanwhile spoken usually isn't. You could use some technology to transcribe it and store the text somewhere to get these advantages, but It is not very common (assuming it works flawlessly, text always does). It also has advantages of not having various time constrains. This mostly means eliminating the urgency of having to answer immediately (which you still can) and therefore you can think about it more. Furthermore, it's easier to receive these messages rather than having a talk, and therefore it's easier to intertwine the downtime of not having a quick answer with another activity.
Which one do you folks prefer and why?
Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#2Wow, mind blown. Effectively refuting a core principle of the Agile Manifesto, as you have done, calls the entire Manifesto and Agile itself into question.
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#3Wow, mind blown. Effectively refuting a core principle of the Agile Manifesto, as you have done, calls the entire Manifesto and Agile itself into question.
This is my subjective opinion, and I would like to know what others think. I might very well be objectively wrong for all I know. The manifesto was written 20+ years ago, when the situation might have been different, so I wouldn't be calling it out because it might have been true in that time.
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#4For remote work, async communication via email - often long discussions over weeks and months, with links, lists, and images. For me, that is superior to any synchronous forms of communication that require all participants to be there at the same time (around the world), such as video, voice, or text chats.
For family, friends, and personal relationships, there's nothing that replaces being together in the same time and place. But that's for conveying emotions, not only information.
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#5> Agile Manifesto states: The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
I refute this claim explicitly.
Written communications which are competently complete are superior to face to face in that memory and real time interpretation fail in comparison to the availability of objectively empirical reference.
The operating imperative is “complete”, and that all sides are “competently” literate.
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#6> Agile Manifesto states: The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. I refute this claim explicitly. Written communications which are competently complete are superior to face to face in that memory and real time interpretation fail in comparison to the availability of objectively empirical reference. The operating imperative is “com…
Prefer face to face for the latency but nothing beats immutable text. I kinda wish we had a popular hybrid between Zoom and email that had the same real-time expectations of a Zoom call with the benefits of the written word.
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#7Wow, mind blown. Effectively refuting a core principle of the Agile Manifesto, as you have done, calls the entire Manifesto and Agile itself into question.
Agile manifesto is not written by and for true engineers. It is written for those who must accommodate the requirements of imperfect people developing good enough software on behalf of uncertain (evolving) requirements.
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#8There's no universal answer here. It depends quite a bit on the people, the topic, the prior context each person has, their abilities to formulate their thoughts effectively and (last though perhaps not least) their writing/typing speeds. Heck, even when all of these factors are the same, different modes can be more efficient in different situations, depending on what kind of outcome you want (say, an exhaustive analysis vs. a quick sketch of an idea). I'm not sure why anyone would claim or expect a universal answer here.
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#9> Agile Manifesto states: The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. I refute this claim explicitly. Written communications which are competently complete are superior to face to face in that memory and real time interpretation fail in comparison to the availability of objectively empirical reference. The operating imperative is “com…
Prefer face to face for the latency but nothing beats immutable text. I kinda wish we had a popular hybrid between Zoom and email that had the same real-time expectations of a Zoom call with the benefits of the written word.
I find real time makes people lazy and “take things for granted.”
How many times have you spent hours+ discussing a topic only to walk away and someone to say “oh, and one more thing…” only to finally get to the most important missing piece?
If you don’t expect others to be there “at the beck and call”, where your arse will be on the line for functional results, the pseudo-contract of explicit text is king!
Re: Ask HN: The most efficient method of conveying information is face-to-face
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prefer face to face for the latency but nothing beats immutable text. I kinda wish we had a popular hybrid between Zoom and email that had the same real-time expectations of a Zoom call with the benefits of the written word.
I find real time makes people lazy and “take things for granted.” How many times have you spent hours+ discussing a topic only to walk away and someone to say “oh, and one more thing…” only to finally get to the most important missing piece? If you don’t expect others to be there “at the beck and call”, where your arse will be on the line for functional results, the pseudo-contract of explicit text is king!
We're social by nature.
I'm quite extroverted, face to face is risky for me I'll have a great time but miss the point if I'm not focused. Text removes the pleasantries and makes it business-first.
In the WFH/post-COVID era the main reason we (in engineering) still do face to face is to keep Agile grifters in a job. Would be terrible if people could just write what they wanted without a handler there to marshal.