The age of agile must end
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The age of agile must end
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Re: The age of agile must end
#2I share the current disdain for "agile" workflows. In particular, I have grown very weary of every example of failure getting met with "they did agile wrong." After enough encounters with it being done in a way that does not bode well, I am forced to start questioning the general ideas.
However, I do find the excessive snark against wanting to empower the developers kind of off putting. In particular, zero charity in reading is given to looking at how it was taken up. And there is practically no way that is accurate, either.
My personal view is that treating the entire "software" industry as a homogeneous one is the mistake here. From type of product being delivered to capabilities of team doing the delivery, there is a lot of variance out there in what one would expect to work. Worse, thinking that any given other field has "figured it out" is doing a major disservice to the hard work that goes into every field.
Re: The age of agile must end
#3Here’s all you need to know about agile:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
Agile works. But you have to actually do agile.
Yes, it’s hard. You have to hire good people and get out of their way. Trust is key. Let them do the work however they want, it’s gonna be okay. Focus on the outcome, not on feeling in control.
Re: The age of agile must end
#4Coming from big corp, I definitely miss my days at smaller shops that did Agile. I feel like so much of this has little to do with the development methodology and more to do with the people though. Smart people can make any methodology. Even at big corp, more waterfall-y processes are not terrible because I think my coworkers make it alright. The author seems to be unhappy about empowered developers being problematic, which I've seen, but a few of those people probably would have been as big a pain as in waterfall land. In general, I think Agile is good because it emphasizes smaller iterations and adapting processes, amongst many other connotations. I think the core of those ideas are miles ahead of whatever was produced decades ago by more rigorous engineering processes. Building a bridge is not the same as building a big piece of software. Developing software is hard in general. I think we're just slowly iterating as an industry towards better practices and we aren't there-there yet. As always, YMMV
Re: The age of agile must end
#5Who is this guy, and what kind of credentials does he have to sprout such drivel?
It seems that like whatever sector he’s in, he has a big beef with developers.
If he’s a designer like I assume from the fact it’s published in something related to UX, I suppose he wants a few months to design a whole application up front (because it’s fun!), only to then throw away 80% of it because the requirements changed halfway through the first sprint.
Re: The age of agile must end
#6Here’s all you need to know about agile: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile. Agile works. But you have to…
>Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile.
Ask any software developer how they work (or would like to work):
"Yeah I just do the thing until it's done, then I do the next thing"
But this doesn't work for management, so we end up with all of these charades, and we have to play along and talk about how "yeah that would be super helpful to have all of these tickets, and track the progress of our burndown chart, and what's our velocity this sprint compared to last?".
It's just a game to play with the company folks put in charge of watching over us doing our thing.
Re: The age of agile must end
#7Here’s all you need to know about agile: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile. Agile works. But you have to…
So far I’m at 3 out of 5. It’s a bit sad that all the good experiences were with companies <200 employees.
Re: The age of agile must end
#8Here’s all you need to know about agile: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile. Agile works. But you have to…
>Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile. Ask any software developer how they work (or would like to work): "Yeah I just do the thing until it's done, then I do the next thing" But this doesn't work for management, so we end up with all of these charades, and we have to play along and talk about how "yeah…
These deliverables are usually tied to external events with lead times of their own like an ad campaign, new hire, funding, etc.
Engineering teams that can more accurately estimate their delivery dates add tangible value to their company.
Re: The age of agile must end
#9Here’s all you need to know about agile: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile. Agile works. But you have to…
>Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile. Ask any software developer how they work (or would like to work): "Yeah I just do the thing until it's done, then I do the next thing" But this doesn't work for management, so we end up with all of these charades, and we have to play along and talk about how "yeah…
The big problem is that it doesn’t fundamentally change the way you work, which is exactly “Do the thing until it’s done, then do the next thing”.
What happens is that you get yanked off the thing halfway through, only to have the same thing happen with a few other things.
Then folks ask why there’s 4 unfinished things lying around.
Re: The age of agile must end
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Unfortunately in my 10+ years in the industry, I’ve seen few teams do it that way. More often it’s a top-down series of waterfalls masquerading as agile. Ask any software developer how they work (or would like to work): "Yeah I just do the thing until it's done, then I do the next thing" But this doesn't work for management, so we end up with all of these charades, and we have to play along and talk about how "yeah…
These deliverables are usually tied to external events with lead times of their own like an ad campaign, new hire, funding, etc. Engineering teams that can more accurately estimate their delivery dates add tangible value to their company.
For once it would be nice if they figured out those things can adapt to engineering time too, instead of the other way around.